Brenda Holloway born June 21, 1946

Brenda Holloway (born June 21, 1946) is an American soul singer who was a recording artist for Motown Records during the 1960s. She left Motown after four years, at the age of 22, and largely retired from the music industry until the 1990s, after her recordings had become popular on the British "Northern soul" scene.

Holloway was born in Atascadero, California, in 1946 and grew up in the Watts section of Los Angeles; as a child, she learned violin and began singing in church with her younger sister Patrice (who later became a prominent session singer and contributed vocals to Josie & the Pussycats). After singing with the group that later became the Whispers, Holloway's first professional recording was made at age 14, backing 12-year-old Patrice on a locally released single. Brenda herself soon began cutting records on several different L.A. labels, and she and her sister also found work as session vocalists.

                                  

In 1964, Holloway performed a rendition of Mary Wells' "My Guy" at a DJ convention in Los Angeles. Motown founder Berry Gordy happened to be there, and he was so struck by the power of her vocals (not to mention her physical form) that he made Holloway his first West Coast signing, placing her on the Tamla subsidiary. Her debut single, "Every Little Bit Hurts," was an R&B smash that also reached number 12 on the pop charts, and was covered by British R&B aficionados like the Spencer Davis Group and the Small Faces; it became the title track of her first album, also released in 1964.

Holloway won a spot on Dick Clark's "Caravan of Stars" tour on the condition that then-struggling Motown girl group The Supremes join them. Holloway also found fans in the Beatles, who gave her an opening slot on their 1965 American tour. Her performances were taped and recorded when The Beatles held their landmark Shea Stadium show on August 15 of that year. Holloway's successes led to her being an in-demand television celebrity.

She scored several more R&B hits through 1965 -- "I'll Always Love You" and the Smokey Robinson-penned tracks "When I'm Gone" and "Operator." However, Tamla scrapped a follow-up album, which would have been called Hurtin' and Cryin', and Holloway began to feel that she was getting the short end of the stick. She frequently travelled from her home in Los Angeles to record in Detroit, and began to feel that the material she was given wasn't always up to snuff, perhaps because of her distance. She began to work more on her own writing, often in partnership with her sister, and with a bit of outside help they co-wrote "You've Made Me So Very Happy" in 1968. Berry Gordy was allowed to change a few notes on the musical composition, giving him a song-writing credit together with the record's producer, Frank Wilson. This led to Holloway's third top-40 pop single, with the song reaching number 39 on the Hot 100 and number 40 on the R&B chart. Holloway's version was a minor R&B hit, but Blood Sweat & Tears turned it into a major pop hit the following year.

Her second album, The Artistry of Brenda Holloway, was released in 1968. However, midway through a recording session with Smokey Robinson in Detroit, she left the studio and returned to Los Angeles. Motown's PR later released a statement on Holloway's departure, saying she had left to "sing for God", but her real reasons were her disillusionment with Motown and with her management, and her fear of being drawn into a lifestyle which conflicted with her religious convictions.  

In 1969, Holloway sued Gordy for monetary reasons stemming from the success of Blood, Sweat & Tears' cover version of her single, "You've Made Me So Very Happy", which the group had taken to number 2 on the US pop chart that year. Holloway eventually won her case. She recorded for Holland, Dozier and Holland's labels Invictus and Music Merchant in the late 1960s and early 1970s. With her sister Patrice, she also continued session work into the 1970s, including several sessions with British rock singer Joe Cocker. She married a preacher, Albert Davis, in Los Angeles in 1969, and the couple had four children, Beoir, Unita, Christy and Dontese.

In 1980, Holloway released a gospel album for Birthright Records, Brand New!, that went unnoticed. After several unhappy years, she and Albert Davis divorced in the mid-1980s. Holloway's records remained popular on England's so-called "Northern soul" scene, and in 1987 she travelled to the U.K. to record several Motown-style singles for producer Ian Levine's Motorcity label. She recorded the song "On The Rebound" as a duet with Jimmy Ruffin 1989, then on the album All It Takes, two years later, in 1991. In 1995, motivated by the death of Mary Wells, she returned to live performance around the L.A. area, often in tandem with fellow soul veteran Brenton Wood. She performed in the U.K. as well, and in 1999 she signed with the revived Volt label to record It's a Woman's World, which took a more contemporary urban approach. That same year Holloway was honoured with the Rhythm & Blues Foundation's prestigious Pioneer Award.

Her last album, My Love is Your Love, was released in 2003. Several of Holloway's classic recordings, including "Every Little Bit Hurts", "When I'm Gone" and "You've Made Me So Very Happy" were covered by a variety of acts over the years. In 2003, Vivian Green played Holloway in a cameo appearance on the TV show, American Dreams, where she sang "Every Little Bit Hurts," and, in 2005, Alicia Keys famously covered "Every Little Bit Hurts" for her Unplugged special. In 2005, Holloway appeared on the PBS concert TV special My Music: Salute to Early Motown. In 2011, Holloway recorded a duet with Cliff Richard on his Soulicious album, but did not perform with Richard on his accompanying concert tour in Britain.

Her later live performances have been rare, with her last major UK appearances primarily consisting of Northern Soul festivals and revues, such as her 2018 set at 229 The Venue in London.

(Edited from AllMusic & Wikipedia) 

LLoyd Arnold born June 25, 1935

           
 

Lloyd Arnold (June 25, 1935 - January 10, 1976) was an American country and rockabilly singer.

Of Irish descent, Lloyd Arnold McCollough was born into a musical family as the youngest of seven children. While in high school, he developed a formidable reputation as a baseball player and was torn between a career in baseball or in show business. After the death of Hank Williams on January 1, 1953, Lloyd decided to concentrate on a career in music. His first instrument was the mandolin, which he received as a Christmas present in 1950. All his spare time was spent practising and by the end of 1952 he was performing for friends and neighbours. In 1953 he formed his first band, The Drifting Hillbillies, which consisted mainly of family members. During 1953 and 1954 they recorded several demos / acetates at Sam Phillips's Memphis Recording Service..

Drifting Hillbillies

While suffering with childhood meningitis, Lloyd had lost many school days. Due to this lost time, his graduation from Memphis Technical High School was delayed until May 1954. He was married in the summer of the same year. However, the marriage did not last long. By then he was already somewhat of an established performer. He and the band began to travel, gaining popularity throughout the southern states. His first record was made for the Von label from Booneville, Mississippi, in the fall of 1955. Both sides, "Oh Darling" and "Watch That Girl" were pure country. It gave Lloyd something to sell on his radio shows on KWEM. The two sides of his second record, "Until I Love Again"/"What Goes On In Your Heart" (1956) were mid-tempo country offerings, more polished and professional than the Von sides. Not surprising, given the fact that the backing musicians included Chet Atkins and Jerry Byrd. 

                                  

As country music's popularity started to wane due to the explosion of rock 'n' roll, Lloyd switched to rockabilly, which was a relatively easy task for him. His third single was in this new style : "Gonna Love My Baby"/ "Cause I Love You" (1956), produced by Murray Nash. His next single, "Half My Fault", again for a different label (Starday), was even better, but it was not released until March 1958, when rockabilly had already gone out of fashion. By that time Lloyd had changed the name of his band to the Rockin' Drifters. Its line-up changed constantly, but they always had plenty of work and not just in the South. 

Rockin' Drifters

While working on the East Coast, Lloyd came to the attention of Savoy's Herman Lubinsky, who cut six songs with him, but only two were released, on Savoy's subsidiary label, Sharp. The instrumental "Dixie Doodle" (1960) was the first record to be credited to "Lloyd Arnold", as he now called himself. All earlier singles gave credit to Lloyd McCollough or McCullough. In late 1960, Lloyd recorded (probably in Philadelphia) what many consider to be his best rocker, "Red Coat, Green Pants and Red Suede Shoes". Coupled with the equally strong "Hangout", it had all the right ingredients : hot vocals, blistering guitar and a raunchy sax, but like all his previous records, it sold poorly.

Around 1959, Lloyd had met Buford Cody, a charming, helpful man, who became his manager. Cody also had his own label, Memphis Records, for which Lloyd recorded six singles in 1962-64. These included good versions of "School Days" and "Go Go Go", songs by Chuck Berry, who was a major influence on Lloyd's rock n roll material. Some of the Memphis records were mainstream sixties country, like the very pleasant "Lonesome Finds Me", and by the second half of the 1960s, Lloyd had completely switched to country music, for a succession of small labels in Memphis and Nashville. 

In the late sixties and early seventies a tougher bluesy orientated form of country started to emerge. Lloyd embraced this style with passion. He was now recording for John Capps's K-Ark label in Nashville, which released an album and three singles by him (1972-73). Once again Lloyd turned to Chuck Berry songs for inspiration ("Memphis" and a new version of "School Days"), but the LP also featured several of Lloyd's own compositions. 

After many years on the road, Lloyd decided it was time to call it a day. He opened a night club, appropriately called "L.A.'s Country", in Memphis and was quite content playing there. McCoullough's father had died in 1968; two years later, his mother followed him. He could not get over these losses for the rest of his life and his health deteriorated visibly; meningitis broke out again. Dogged by misfortune and personal problems, Lloyd tragically took his own life on January 10, 1976 in Memphis, Tennessee. He was only 40 years old. He never had the kind of commercial success he so richly deserved, but he will be remembered by many for his music into which he put his heart and soul.

(Edited from This Is My Story & Wikipedia)

Milt Hinton born June 23, 1910

Milton John Hinton (June 23, 1910 – December 19, 2000) was an American double bassist and photographer. Regarded as the Dean of American jazz bass players, his nicknames included "Sporty" from his years in Chicago, "Fump" from his time on the road with Cab Calloway, and "The Judge" from the 1950s and beyond. Hinton's recording career lasted over 60 years, mostly in jazz but also with a variety of other genres as a prolific session musician. He was also a photographer of note, praised for documenting American jazz during the 20th Century.

Hinton was born in Vicksburg, Mississippi, United States, the only child of Hilda Gertrude Robinson, and Milton Dixon Hinton. He was three-months-old when his father left the family. He grew up in a home with his mother, his maternal grandmother and two of his mother's sisters. At the age of eight, the youngster witnessed a lynching, an event that would remain an indelible memory. Soon afterwards, the family left for Chicago, part of African America's great migration northward. Hinton took violin lessons but, before turning professional, spent a short period involved with Al Capone's booze racketeering. He took up the bass and worked with the city's top leaders, including Boyd Atkins, Tiny Parham, Eddie South, Jabbo Smith, Erskine Tate, Zutty Singleton, and Fate Marable.

Milt with Cab Calloway

In 1935, he joined the prestigious Cab Calloway Orchestra, where with his full tone and tremendous drive became a mainstay of the band's rhythm section. He remained with the band for 26 years. Singing hits such as Minnie The Moocher, Calloway was a popular entertainer who hired the best musicians and worked at the celebrated Cotton Club. Leading his trombones was Keg Johnson, who got Hinton the job and encouraged his early interest in photography, teaching him darkroom procedures while they were on the road and introducing him to Leica cameras. Throughout his Calloway days, Hinton carried a camera in his pocket. He documented the joys and rigours of the travelling life and, in the south, the indignities of segregation. These latter images, depicting eminent jazzmen standing beside "Colored Only" signs, retain an ability to shock, although to Hinton and his colleagues, they were snapshots, made for amusement rather than as political statement.

                                  

When Calloway disbanded in 1951, Hinton worked as a freelance in New York, and was soon one of the most sought-after jazz musicians. He played with, anong others, Count Basie and Louis Armstrong's All Stars until a chance meeting with Jackie Gleason changed his life for ever. He knew Gleason, then a television personality, from his days as a nightclub comedian, and it was he who arranged immediately for the bassist to be hired for a record date. There, he was acknowledged by the regulars, all of them white. For Hinton, this recognition went deeper than individual satisfaction, for de facto segregation still kept African Americans out of the studios and the best-paid musical work. He, together with trumpeter Joe Wilder, pioneered the breakthrough. In a musicians' community politicised by the civil rights struggle, he was admired for his diplomatic savvy and respected for his racial politics and demeanour.

Hinton's jazz recordings alone run into the thousands but, by the end of the 1950s, he had become a ubiquitous figure in the commercial studios. To refuse work in such a competitive field was unwise, so he worked around the clock - keeping an instrument at each major studio. Meanwhile, he became an integral part of rock 'n' roll, laying down the beat behind countless hit records. Some of his most notable commercial work involved other eminent jazzmen, and a quartet in which he played with pianist Hank Jones, drummer Osie Johnson and guitarist Barry Galbraith became known, unofficially, as the New York Rhythm Section. In constant demand, Hinton backed singers as diverse as Paul Anka and Jackie Wilson, and was nicknamed "Judge" because of the standard he set.

Milt with Duke Ellington

Harmonic experiments in the 1940s with Dizzy Gillespie made him a forerunner of modern jazz bass players and, later, during the generational consolidation inspired by the black politics of the 1960s, he was among the elder statesmen welcomed on to the bandstand by the most avant-garde of young musicians. In 1970s, he played in the New York Bass Choir, where his presence lent majesty to explorations uniting Ron Carter, Richard Davis, Sam Jones and others. Hinton also taught at Hunter College, CUNY and undertook a few overseas tours and was a member of the band that accompanied Bing Crosby on his final trip to Europe.

For years, Hinton's photography was an insider's secret. Shooting at recording sessions during playbacks and breaks, he provided valuable insight into the priorities of fellow artists. Yet while a poignant image of Billie Holiday at her last session became known, it was not until David Berger, at Temple University, Philadelphia, began cataloguing Hinton's vast collection that the value of his enterprise was revealed. Following the publication of the two books, Bass Line (1988) and Over Time (1991), photographic requests poured in. Hinton was revitalised by this unexpected interest.

Mona & Milt

In 1939 when Hinton returned to Chicago for his grandmother's funeral, he met Mona Clayton, who was then singing in his mother's church choir. The two were married a few years later and remained inseparable for the rest of Milt's life. They had married in the Calloway days, and she played an important role in organising his hectic life. During Art Kane's 1958 Esquire session that produced a famous photograph of 57 musicians on a Harlem doorstep, it was Mona who shot movie footage, and this, with Hinton's own stills, contributed to A Great Day In Harlem (1994), the award-winning movie about that day.

In 1990 George Wein produced a concert as a part of the JVC Jazz Festival in honour of Hinton's 80th birthday. Similar concerts were produced for his 85th and 90th birthdays. By 1996, he ceased performing on bass, due to a number of physical ailments, and he died in Queens, New York, at the age of 90 on December 19, 2000.

Edited from The Guardian obit, The New Grove Dictionary of Jazz & Wikipedia) 

Joe Medwick born June 21, 1931

 

Joe Medwick (June 21, 1931* – April 12, 1992) was an American rhythm and blues singer and songwriter who was the great underground hero of Texas Soul/R&B. Whether it was writing songs or singing them his talents were truly astonishing. But thanks to his preference for the Houston nightlife offered by the city’s notorious Third Ward rather than his career, his name never got outside of the city limits.

He was born Medwick N. Veasey in Houston, Texas, on June 21, 1931, the son of Rayfield Veasey and Renatta Watson. Though mainly noted as a lyricist whose songs were often covered by other singers, Veasey, best-known both personally and professionally as Joe Medwick, also recorded and released material (under pseudonyms) on various labels from 1958 through 1988. A lifelong Houstonian, Veasey grew up in Third Ward and attended Yates High School. As a youth he reportedly adopted the nickname “Joe” as a prefix to his given name because of the national popularity of the major league baseball player Joe Medwick (who first starred for the St. Louis Cardinals in the 1930s). In his teens Veasey launched his singing career, performing with the Chosen Gospel Singers for approximately four years before turning his focus to secular music.

                                   

After serving in Korea with the US Army, he returned to the Third Ward in Houston, where he performed in a blues club, Shady's Playhouse, often with pianist Teddy Reynolds (who later accompanied Bobby Bland), and increasingly spent his time writing lyrics and composing tunes for other blues musicians to sing. According to the Texas State Historical Association: "Medwick was often able to sell the resulting material almost immediately to local music producers. In doing so, he rarely asked for formal contracts to establish proper songwriting credit for himself, instead choosing to peddle the songs outright —thereby surrendering any rights to potential royalty payments — for ready cash. Thus, among his musician peers and industry insiders (if not always supported by publishing documentation), Medwick is commonly known to have written or co-written many songs which became hits for other artists with the writing credits typically attributed exclusively to the person who had purchased (and thereafter registered the copyrights on) the compositions."

TNT Briggs, Don Robey and Bobby Bland

He sold many of his songs to Don Robey, the owner of the Duke and Peacock labels whose major stars were Bobby Bland and Junior Parker. In a few cases, including "Further On Up The Road", Medwick was given a co-writing credit, though it is thought that Medwick in fact wrote the song with Johnny Copeland rather than with Robey. Copeland said: "Joe tied the record up with Mr. Robey, just as he did with every song. Joe sold Mr. Robey maybe five hundred songs, ten, fifteen dollars apiece..." In many other cases, including "I Pity the Fool", "Turn On Your Love Light", "Call On Me", "I Don't Want No Woman", "Driving Wheel", and "Cry, Cry, Cry", it is believed that Medwick wrote the songs but the credit was taken by Robey, often using his song writing pseudonym Deadric Malone. In a 1990 interview, Medwick acknowledged his poor judgement in trading his songs for cash, while absolving Robey of any blame. He also sold his songs to other record producers in Houston, including Huey Meaux.

During the late 1950s, Medwick also recorded his own songs occasionally for Robey, none of which created much interest. During the 1960s he recorded for small local labels including Paradise, Allboy, East-West, Boogaloo and Pacemaker, often using various names. It is thought that his best songs were held back from him, so that bigger stars like Bobby Bland - with whom he later fell out - could record them instead.  A handful of releases on Teardrop, Westpark, VE GEO and Kimberly make up the remainder of Medwick's singles output. In '65 he appeared on Monument for one release and a year later he recorded Robert Parker's Barefootin'.

Drinking took its toll during the '70s and '80s, and Medwick languished in complete obscurity through the disco years. In 1978, Huey Meaux issued a compilation LP of many of Medwick's demo recordings, Why Do Heartaches Pick On Me. In the mid-'80s former Little Richard sax titan Grady Gaines came out of retirement and launched The Texas Upsetters, an old-school R&B band that still plays today. Medwick was tabbed as one of two lead vocalists for the combo, with his old friend from the gospel days, Big Robert Smith taking the other slot. Gaines signed with Black Top Records and released two albums, “Full Gain” (1988), and “Horn Of Plenty”, on which Medwick and his songs could at last be heard identified correctly. Fate seemed to finally be smiling on Medwick but then he was stricken by liver cancer and died at his home in Houston on April 12, 1992. As a military veteran, Veasey is buried in Houston National Cemetery.

(Edited from Wikipedia & Bear Family liner notes)(*other sources give 1933 as birth year.)

(I could only find two photographs of Joe on the web and one of them is taken from the video below)

Lalo Shifrin born June 21, 1932

 Lalo Schifrin (June 21, 1932 – June 26, 2025) was an Argentine and American pianist, conductor and arranger. He was the composer of some 100 works for classical and jazz orchestras and of more than 150 scores for film and television, but he will inevitably be remembered for just one piece of music he wrote in five minutes in 1966 – the theme to Mission: Impossible.

Boris Claudio Schifrin was born into a Jewish family in Buenos Aires, Argentina. He was the son of Luis Schifrin, a violinist in the orchestra of the Teatro Colón, and his wife Clara, née Slifquin. “In my house it was Schubert and Beethoven,” he said. Lalo, as he was known, had been expected to follow in the footsteps of his father, who often took the boy to the opera. “If Verdi were alive today he would be one of the great film composers… Just listen to what the orchestra does in Otello,” Schifrin told Gramophone magazine.

At the age of six he began studying piano with Enrique Barenboim, the father of Daniel Barenboim. In case music did not work out he went on to read sociology and law at the University of Buenos Aires. As a student he declared his determination to pursue a career in jazz but was admonished by his parents for choosing a life full of “drugs, alcohol and ladies of the night”. Tango, he added, “was considered lower-class and was forbidden”, though he grew familiar with it while working as Astor Piazzolla’s pianist in the 1950s.

He went to lectures given by the composer and theorist Juan Carlos Paz, who had been a student of Schoenberg in Vienna and who spoke about Webern, Berg and the history of modern music. “I asked him if he would teach me privately,” he said, adding that “thanks to him I won a scholarship to the Paris Conservatoire.” There, he worked with the composer Olivier Messiaen. “I had a double life. I would study at the Conservatoire with him during the day and play in jazz bands at night in places like the Club Saint-Germain,” he said. “Messiaen didn’t like jazz, but he was a very nice man, a Catholic mystic.” After Saturday evenings spent in jazz clubs he attended Mass the following morning simply to hear Messiaen play the organ.

Schifrin recalled this as a time of polo-necked sweaters, Juliette Gréco and existentialism. “Jean-Paul Sartre and Simone de Beauvoir used to hold court in the cafés, and during the intermission in the club I used to come and hear what they had to say,” he added. In 1955 he represented Argentina at the International Festival of Jazz in Paris before returning to Buenos Aires and starting a jazz band. The following year Dizzy Gillespie, who was touring Argentina for the US State Department, heard him and whisked him to New York.

There he wrote Gillespiana, an extended work for big band that was both a tribute to the trumpeter and an exploration of the Latin rhythms that were an integral part of Gillespie’s repertoire. It marked the start of a period making music with Latin dance orchestras across the city interspersed with touring the world accompanying such legends as Count Basie, Ella Fitzgerald and Miles Davis. Over the next decade he produced more than 100 jazz albums, including for Gillespie and Stan Getz, and was the mastermind behind organist Jimmy Smith’s Grammy-winning album The Cat (1964).

                                  

Meanwhile, in 1963 he moved to Hollywood, where he wrote his first film theme, for the African adventure Rhino! (1964). He was much influenced by both Henry Mancini and Bernard Herrmann, but his finest work was altogether tougher than theirs, and adeptly set the mood for the hard-edged pictures for which he so often wrote, notably Once a Thief (1965), with Alain Delon, and Coogan’s Bluff (1968), with Clint Eastwood, while for television he composed the music for Dr Kildare and the private-eye series Mannix. In 1966 Schifrin took a call from the CBS television producer Bruce Geller, who needed a theme tune in a hurry. Within a matter of minutes he had produced the bones of the Mission: Impossible theme, a breathless beat played on the bongos combined with a sexy flute line.

This unmistakable tune helped to turn a TV show about secret agents into a hit, eventually spawning a vast film franchise culminating in this year’s $400 million Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning. “It had to be like a call to the viewers to watch,” the composer explained of the music’s urgency. He them worked on the Oscar-nominated score for Cool Hand Luke (1967), the prison drama featuring Paul Newman. The director Stuart Rosenberg later called him in for The Amityville Horror (1979), based on the supernatural experience of a family from Amityville, New York, and was rewarded with a chilling score, again nominated for an Oscar, featuring creepy playground singing.

For the Bruce Lee hit Enter the Dragon (1973) Schifrin combined big funky guitar sounds and Chinese-sounding figurations with John Barryesque strings and Lee’s whoops and cries. The film inspired him to take up martial arts, reaching black-belt status, and he was delighted to learn that Lee had been practising his own moves to the Mission: Impossible theme. He also wrote the scores for the Winston Churchill kidnap thriller The Eagle Has Landed (1976), with Michael Caine, Donald Sutherland and Jenny Agutter, and The Fourth Protocol (1987) starring Caine and Pierce Brosnan.Being a keen footballer he was delighted to be asked to work with the Three Tenors, Plácido Domingo, Luciano Pavarotti and José Carreras, on their 1990 World Cup concert by the ancient Baths of Caracalla in Rome. They collaborated again for concerts in Los Angeles (1994) and Paris (1998), with the composer demonstrating an uncanny ability to write in the style of operatic composers such as Puccini, Verdi and Bizet.

Schifrin, who spoke English with a melodious Spanish accent, lived in Beverly Hills in a large but homely house that had once belonged to Groucho Marx. He described how his studio, with leather sofas, a grand piano and a desk strewn with manuscript paper, was done up “like an English pub”. It was crammed with books, awards and antique scores, as well as a large collection of pipes collected on his travels.“People ask me how it is that I’m so versatile,” he once said. “But I say, ‘I’m not versatile. I just don’t see limits. To me all music is one music… The biggest difference between me and composers of the 19th century is that I embrace two art forms that didn’t exist then, jazz and movies.”

In 2008 Schifrin wrote an autobiography, Mission Impossible: My Life in Music. He had a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, was a Chevalier of the French Order of Arts and Letters, and held the position of adviser on cultural affairs to the Argentinian government. In 1988 he was given a lifetime achievement award by the BMI and in 2018 Clint Eastwood presented him with an Academy Honorary Award "in recognition of his unique musical style, compositional integrity and influential contributions to the art of film scoring."

Schifrin died from complications of pneumonia at a hospital in Los Angeles, on June 26, 2025, at the age of 93.

(Edited from Telegraph obit & Wikipedia)

Anne Murray born June 20, 1945

Anne Murray (born June 20, 1945) is a Canadian retired country, pop and adult contemporary music singer who has sold over 55 million album copies worldwide during her over 40-year career.

Born Morna Anne Murray in Nova Scotia, music was always one of Murray's hobbies. While she was enrolled at the University of New Brunswick studying physical education, she auditioned for a spot on the Halifax-based weekly CBC television series, Singalong Jubilee, but she wasn't hired because they already had an alto singer. Following that rejection, Murray graduated from college and began teaching physical education at the high-school level. Two years after her initial Singalong Jubilee audition, the show's producer, Bill Langstroth, called her with the information that a new television show, Let's Go, needed an altoist. After some persuasion, Murray agreed to join the program, although she did not give up her teaching job. For the next four years, she sang on Let's Go, eventually striking up a professional relationship with the program's musical director Brian Ahern, who recommended she pursue a solo singing career.

Murray left her teaching job and moved into the limelight through national broadcasts, quickly establishing herself as a fan favourite with solo spots on Singalong Jubilee until 1970. In these early years, Murray sang barefoot and accompanied herself on guitar. Encouraged and produced by Brian Ahern, Murray made her solo recording debut with the folk album What About Me (1968) for the Canadian label Arc Records. The record was well-received and popular for an independent album, thereby earning the attention of Capitol, whose Canadian division signed her to a long-term contract in 1969. The following year, her debut single for the label, "Snowbird," became an international hit, reaching the Top Ten on both the country and pop charts in America, while reaching the British Top 40. Following the success of "Snowbird," Murray moved to Los Angeles, where she began to regularly appear on Glen Campbell's syndicated television show. However, she didn't like the California lifestyle and quickly returned to Canada.

                                  

Capitol Records released Murray’s second solo album, This Way Is My Way, in 1969, and her first hit single, Gene MacLellan’s “Snowbird,” in 1970. Murray’s recording of “Snowbird” typified what would become her characteristic crossover sound: part country, part pop, part adult contemporary. The song was a massive hit, reaching No. 1 on Billboard’s Adult Contemporary chart and making Murray the first Canadian woman to earn a gold record in the United States. “Snowbird” sold more than 1 million copies in 1970 alone and earned Murray two Grammy Award nominations. Murray’s recognizability increased after she made her US national television debut on 4 October 1970 on The Glen Campbell Goodtime Hour, where she became a frequent guest. In October 1970, CBC TV aired the first of many Anne Murray specials. Her reputation as a country singer was further entrenched through appearances on Nashville North (The Ian Tyson Show) and The Johnny Cash Show.

Although she became well known in the United States, Murray continued to base her career in Canada. By 1971, she had moved from Nova Scotia to Toronto, but she resisted a permanent move to the United States even though she performed in that country frequently, e.g., opening for Glen Campbell’s concerts and appearing in Las Vegas and Los Angeles. Also in 1971, she made her first tour of Western Canada (to sold-out shows) as well as her debut at Massey Hall in Toronto (four shows over two days). However, the frequency of her television appearances and concerts led to speculation that Murray was becoming overexposed and that an absence of focused planning was damaging her career. Also, by the early 1970s she had followed up “Snowbird” with a string of largely unsuccessful singles and badly needed a hit. She toured Europe and North America in 1972.

Murray began to update her image in an attempt to place her more firmly in the pop genre. In 1973, she found the hit she needed with “Danny’s Song,” which spent two weeks at No. 1 on Billboard’s Adult Contemporary chart and earned a Grammy nomination. She also opened for Glen Campbell in Europe. Then in 1974, she received a Grammy Award for best female country vocal performance for “A Love Song.” That recording reached No. 5 on Billboard’s country chart and No. 1 on the Adult Contemporary chart. Also that year, “Send A Little Love My Way,” which she sang for the film Oklahoma Crude, was nominated for a Golden Globe. She was named an Officer of the Order of Canada in 1975.

Murray entered her period of greatest commercial success in 1978, as a cover of "Walk Right Back" climbed to number four on the country charts, followed shortly afterward by "You Needed Me," her biggest hit since "Songbird"; the single reached number four on the country charts and topped the pop charts, going gold by the end of the year. For the next eight years, she had a virtually uninterrupted string of Top Ten country hits, highlighted by nine number ones. She prospered during the era of urban cowboy, since her music drew as much from pop and easy listening as it did from country.

Anne with Willie Nelson

Murray's sales began to decline in the latter half of the '80s, primarily due to the shifting tastes of the country audience, which was beginning to seek out harder-edged new traditionalist performers. Nevertheless, she maintained a dedicated following during the late '80s and '90s through her occasional recordings ("Feed This Fire" became a surprise Top Ten hit in the summer of 1990) and her concerts. Murray recorded her first live album in 1997 and released What a Wonderful World in 1999. Five years later, she released I'll Be Seeing You in Canada; the album arrived in the United States as All of Me in 2005. 

Anne with Tina Turner

Murray returned in 2007 with Duets: Friends and Legends. Murray went on her last concert tour in early 2008 and gave her final public performance in Toronto in May 2008. She also appeared that year as a mentor on the Canadian Idol television show. In 2009, she published her memoir, All of Me, and in 2010 she was a flag-bearer for the 2010 Olympic Winter Games in Vancouver. She remains retired from the music business.

Anne at the JUNO Awards 2025

Murray had 28 songs on the Billboard Hot 100 chart, eight No. 1 hits on the Adult Contemporary chart and 25 Top 10 hits on the Hot Country Songs chart. Named the Female Recording Artist of the 1970s by the Canadian Recording Industry Association, she has sold more than 55 million albums worldwide. She was nominated for or won a Juno Award every year but one from 1971 to 1995, winning 23 in total, more than any other artist. She has also won four Grammy Awards, nine Big Country Awards, two Canadian Country Music Association Awards and three American Music Awards. A Companion of the Order of Canada and a Member of the Order of Nova Scotia, she has been inducted into the Canadian Music Hall of Fame, Canadian Country Music Association Hall of Fame, Canadian Association of Broadcasters Hall of Fame and Canada’s Walk of Fame. Anne received the Lifetime Achievement Award at the 2025 JUNOS.

(Edited from The Canadian Encyclopedia & AllMusic)