July 1: Fred" Schneider if the B-52s - "Love Shack"- is 60-years-old today.

Frederick William "Fred" Schneider III was born in Newark, New Jersey. he is best known as a founding member and the frontman of the rock band The B-52's. The B-52s formed in Athens, Georgia in 1976. The group consisted of Fred Schneider on vocals and cowbell, Kate Pierson on vocals and keyboards, Cindy Wilson vocals, tambourine and bongos, the late-Ricky Wilson on guitar, and Keith Strickland on drums.

Rooted in New Wave and 1960s rock and roll, the group later covered many genres ranging from post-punk to pop rock.

The "guy vs. gals" vocals of Schneider, Pierson, and Wilson, sometimes used in call and response style ("Strobe Light," "Private Idaho", and "Good Stuff"), are a trademark. Presenting themselves as a positive, enthusiastic, slightly oddball party band, the B-52s tell tall tales, glorify wild youth, and celebrate wild romance.

The B-52s were formed when vocalist Cindy Wilson, aged nineteen, her older brother and guitarist Ricky (now deceased), aged twenty-three, organist and vocalist Kate Pierson, aged twenty-eight, original drummer and percussionist Keith Strickland, aged twenty-three, and cowbell player and vocalist Fred Schneider, aged twenty-five, played an impromptu musical jam session after sharing a tropical Flaming Volcano drink at a local Chinese restaurant. They later played their first concert in 1977 at a Valentine's Day party for their friends.


The band's name comes from a particular beehive hairdo resembling the nose cone of the aircraft of the same name. Keith Strickland suggested the name after a dream he had one night, of a band performing in a hotel lounge. In the dream he heard someone whisper in his ear that the name of the band was "The B-52s."

The band's quirky take on the New Wave sound of their era was a combination of dance and surf music set apart by the unusual guitar tunings used by Ricky Wilson. Their costume thrift-store chic set them apart as well.

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Their first single, "Rock Lobster," recorded for DB Records in 1978, was an underground success,selling over 2,000 copies. That led to The B-52s performing at CBGB's and Max's Kansas City in New York City. Two versions of the single were released in the United Kingdom; one featured the single in its original form, and the other featured the B-side "Running Around" in place of "52 Girls." In Canada, released on the Warner Bros. label, the single went from cult favorite  to smash hit, eventually going on to reach the number one position in the RPM-compiled national chart in May 1980.

In 1979, The B-52s signed a contract with Warner Bros. Records. Released on July 6, 1979 under the Island Records label, The B-52's contained re-recorded versions of "Rock Lobster" and "52 Girls," six originals recorded solely for the album, and a remake of the Petula Clark single "Downtown."


It was a major success for the band. In the U.S., the single "Rock Lobster" reached the Billboard Hot 100 chart, while the album itself was certified platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America.


The follow-up, Wild Planet, reached number eighteen on the Billboard 200 chart in 1980 and was certified gold. "Private Idaho" became their second Hot 100 entry. That year, they appeared in the Paul Simon film One Trick Pony. Their third album Party Mix! was released next, a remix album that took tracks from the first two LPs and presented them in extended forms. In interviews before his death, John Lennon cited "Rock Lobster" as an inspiration for his comeback.

Funplex, the band's first original album in sixteen years (since 1992's Good Stuff), was released on March 25, 2008 by Astralwerks. With this album, the band dropped the apostrophe from their name and became The B-52s.

The album debuted at #11 on the Billboard charts in the U.S., immediately making it the second-highest charting B-52s album ever. The B-52s recently performed their hit track "Love Shack" with Sugarland at the 2009 CMT Music Awards.

On February 18, 2011 the B-52s played a special 34th Anniversary show at the Classic Center in their hometown of Athens, Georgia. The show took place 4 days after the 34th anniversary date of their first-ever show, Feb. 14, 1977. The show was filmed and recorded for a forthcoming DVD and CD release.

The B-52s are still steadily playing 50-60 live shows a year, the setlist ranging from tracks on Funplex to their greatest hits and songs never played live before (such as Bouncing off the Satellites ' "Wig").

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Schneider has stated that his musical influences included "Halloween songs and nutty Christmas songs" along with "Motown". In college, he wrote a book of poetry for his final project. After college he held down jobs as a janitor as well as a meals-on-wheels driver.

Aside from duties as the frontman, cowbell player, toy pianist (on "Dance This Mess Around") and glockenspieler (on "Give Me Back My Man") of The B-52's, Fred Schneider has released two solo albums. He is currently working on a side project called The Superions, they released a self-titled EP and the album Destination... Christmas! in 2010 and in February 2011 began working on a full-length album.


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July 1: Debbie Harry of Blondie is 66-years-old today.

Deborah Ann "Debbie" Harry is a singer-songwriter and actress, best known for being the lead singer of the punk rock and new wave band Blondie. She has also had success as a solo artist, and in the mid-1990s she performed and recorded as part of The Jazz Passengers.

Her acting career spans over thirty film roles and numerous television appearances.

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Deborah Ann "Debbie" Harry is from Hawthorne, New Jersey and Miami, Florida. She graduated from Centenary College in Hackettstown, New Jersey, with an Associate of Arts degree in 1965. After  moving to New York City in the late 1960s, she worked as a secretary at BBC Radio's office  for one year. Later, she was a waitress at Max's Kansas City, then a dancer in Union City, New Jersey, and then a Playboy Bunny.

She began her musical career in the late '60s with a folk rock group, The Wind in the Willows. who recorded one album for Capitol Records. Harry then joined a girl-group trio, The Stilettos, in the early 1970s. The Stilettos' backup band included her eventual boyfriend and Blondie guitarist, Chris Stein.

Harry and Stein formed the band Blondie in the mid-1970s, naming it for the term of address men often yelled at Harry. Blondie quickly became regulars at Max's Kansas City and CBGB in New York City. After a debut album in 1976, commercial success followed in the late 1970s to the early 1980s, first in Australia and Europe, then in the U.S.

With her two-tone bleached-blonde hair, Harry quickly became a recognizable punk icon. Her look was further popularized by the band's early presence in the music video revolution of the era. She was a continued regular at Studio 54.

In June 1979, Blondie graced the cover of Rolling Stone. Harry's stage persona of cool sexuality and streetwise style became so closely associated with the group's name that many came to believe "Blondie" was the singer's name. The difference between the individual Harry and the band Blondie was famously highlighted with a "Blondie is a Group" button campaign by the band in 1979.

 

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During 1976 and 1977 Blondie released their first two albums. The second experienced some marginal success outside the U.S. However, 1978's Parallel Lines shot the group to Worldwide success and included the hit single, "Heart of Glass."

Riding the crest of Disco, the infectious track hit #1 in the US and sold nearly two million copies. The follow-up single, "One Way Or Another" reached #24 on Billboard's Hot 100. The album was the band's biggest success, having sold over 6 million copies in the U.S. The band were also pioneers of the music video movement with Eat To The Beat being heralded as the first ever music video cassette album.

The release of the platinum-plus Eat to the Beat album in 1979 and Autoamerican in 1980, continued the band's run of hits, including "Dreaming," Atomic" and three more US #1 singles: "The Tide Is High," "Rapture" and "Call Me" from the film soundtrack American Gigolo, which became Billboard's #1 song of 1980.

After a year long hiatus in 1981, during which Harry released her first solo album, Blondie regrouped and released their sixth studio album The Hunter. The album peaked at #33 and fell rapidly off the charts. The single "Island of Lost Souls" briefly cracked the US Top 40.

The band's "War Child" was released as a single in the UK. Blondie launched a North American tour to support the release, but it was cut short when Stein fell seriously ill with the rare autoimmune disease, pemphigus. Coupled with declining commercial fortunes, the band split up.

Later in the 1980s, the remix album Once More Into The Bleach was released, featuring remixes of tracks by Blondie and from Harry's solo career. The mid-1990s saw the release of further Blondie remix albums Beautiful in Europe and Remixed Remade Remodeled in the U.S.

In 1997, Blondie began working together again for the first time in 15 years. of the original members (Harry, Stein, Clem Burke and Jimmy Destri) embarked on sessions for what would become Blondie's seventh studio album.

After a final tour of Europe with The Jazz Passengers in the summer of 1998, Deborah Harry resumed duties as lead vocalist of Blondie. Prior to the release of No Exit, the band completed a sold out tour of Europe.

To date, Harry has released five solo albums. Harry began her solo career with the Chrysalis Records album Koo Koo in 1981. The album peaked at #28 in the U.S. and #6 in the UK. It was later certified gold in the US and Silver in the UK.

While leading Blondie, Harry and Stein became life as well as musical partners, although they never married. In the mid-1980s, she took a few years off to nurse Stein back to health after he suffered a life-threatening disease. Stein and Harry broke up in the 1990s, but they have continued to work together.

In 1999, she was called the 12th greatest woman of rock and roll by VH1's 100 Greatest Women of Rock & Roll and in 2002, she was called the 18th sexiest artist of all time by VH1's 100 Sexiest Artists.

She recently completed recording a new album with Blondie titled Panic Of Girls, which was released on May 30 2011.

 

"Panic of Girls"

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July 1: Missy Elliott is 40-years-old today.

Melissa Arnette "Missy" Elliott was born in Portsmouth, Virginia. At the age of four, she already knew she wanted to be an entertainer when she grew up.

With record sales of over seven million in the U.S., she is the only female rapper to have six albums certified platinum by the RIAA, including one double platinum for her 2002 album Under Construction.

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In the early 1990s, Elliott formed an R&B group, called Sista, with friends LaShawn Shellman, Chonita Coleman, and Radiah Scott. She recruited her neighborhood friend Timothy Mosley as the group's producer and began making demo tracks. In 1991, Fayze caught the attention of Jodeci member and producer DeVante Swing by performing Jodeci songs a cappella for him backstage after one of his group's concerts.

Fayze moved to New York City and signed to Elektra Records through DeVante's Swing Mob imprint, also renaming the group Sista. Elliott took Mosley — whom DeVante gave his the nickname Timbaland — and their friend Melvin "Magoo" Barcliff along with her.

All 20-plus members of the Swing Mob — among them Ginuwine, Playa, and Tweet — lived in a single two-story house in New York and were often at work on material both for Jodeci and their own projects. While Elliott wrote and rapped on Raven-Symoné's 1993 debut single, "That's What Little Girls Are Made Of," she also contributed songwriting duties, credited and uncredited, to the final Jodeci albums Diary of a Mad Band and The Show, The After Party, The Hotel.

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Timbaland and DeVante jointly produced a Sista album, entitled 4 All the Sistas Around da World in 1994. Though videos were released for the original and remix versions of the single "Brand New," the album was shelved and never released. One of the group's tracks, "It's Alright" featuring Craig Mack, did however make the cut on the soundtrack of the 1995 motion picture Dangerous Minds. But by the end of 1995, Swing Mob had folded and many of its members dispersed; Elliott, Timbaland, Magoo, Ginuwine, and Playa remained together and collaborated on each others' records for the rest of the decade.

After leaving Swing Mob, Elliott and Timbaland worked together as a songwriting/production team, crafting tracks for acts including SWV and 702, but the most notable of them was Aaliyah. The pair wrote and produced nine tracks for Aaliyah's second album, One in a Million, among them the hit singles "If Your Girl Only Knew," "One in a Million," "Hot Like Fire," and "4 Page Letter." Elliott contributed background vocals and/or guest raps to nearly all of the tracks on which she and Timbaland worked. One in a Million went double-platinum and made stars out of the production duo.

Elliott and Timbaland continued to work together for other artists, later creating hits for artists such as Total ("What About Us," in 1997, Nicole Wray, ("Make It Hot,"  and Destiny's Child, "Get on the Bus," Ciara, Lil 'Mo, as well as one final hit for Aaliyah, "I Care 4 U" before her death in 2001.

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Elliott and Timbaland focus on an old school sound, utilizing many old school rap and funk samples, such as Run DMC's "Peter Piper" and Frankie Smith's "Double Dutch Bus" (in "Work It" and "Gossip Folks," respectively). Elliott's fourth album, 2002's Under Construction, included the aforementioned singles "Work It," Elliott's second biggest hit to date, and the successful duet with Ludacris, "Gossip Folks."

Elliott is known for a series of hits and diverse music videos, including "The Rain (Supa Dupa Fly)," "Hot Boyz," "Get Ur Freak On," "One Minute Man," "Work It," "Pass That Dutch," and "Lose Control." In addition, she has worked extensively as a songwriter and producer for other artists, both alone and with her fellow producer and childhood friend Timbaland, with whom she received her first production credit on R&B singer Ginuwine's 1996's album Ginuwine...the Bachelor.

In June 2011, Elliott told People Magazine that her absence from the music industry was due to an autoimmune disorder known as Graves disease. She experienced severe symptoms from the condition, and explained that she could not even hold a pen up to write songs. After treatment, her symptoms have stabilized and she has announced that she would like to get back to her career.


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July 1: Delaney Bramlett of Shindogs, Delaney & Bonnie & Friends was born on this date in 1939...

... he died on December 27, 2008 at the age of 69.


Delaney Bramlett was born in Pontotoc, Mississippi. His –fifty-year career reached peaks in creativity, performance, and notoriety in partnership with his then wife Bonnie Bramlett, in a revolving troupe of professional musicians and Rock superstars dubbed Delaney & Bonnie & Friends.

After his enlistment in the United States Navy ended in the 1960s, Bramlett moved to Los Angeles, California. There he established himself as a singer-songwriter, writing with fellow musicians Joey Cooper, Mac Davis and Jackie DeShannon. Bramlett also became a regular member of the house band of the television show Shindig!, the Shindogs. During this time, he worked with J.J. Cale and Leon Russell and released unsuccessful solo singles.

Delaney & Bonnie with Eric Clapton & George Harrison.

Guitarist Eric Clapton joined Delaney, Bonnie & Friends on tour in the late 1960s, after which Delaney produced and co-wrote songs for Clapton's debut solo album, Eric Clapton. Clapton still credits Delaney for pushing him to sing and teaching him the art of rock vocals Bramlett produced King Curtis' last LP, which had two hit singles: "Teasin'" and "Lonesome Long Way from Home."

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Bramlett taught then Beatle George Harrison to play slide guitar, which led into a gospel jam that resulted in Harrison's hit "My Sweet Lord." Bramlett wrote, recorded, or appeared on stage with many notable performers, including Joe Cocker, Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin, Billy Preston, John Lennon, The Everly Brothers, Spooner Oldham, Steve Cropper and Billy Burnette.

Members of the Friends appearing in concert or recording with Bramlett on Friends albums include a galaxy of stars and highly respected side men, including Clapton, Harrison, Russell, Curtis, Duane Allman, Gregg Allman, Dave Mason, Rita Coolidge, Carl Radle, Jim Gordon, Bobby Whitlock, Jim Keltner, Bobby Keys, and Gram Parsons.

In 2006 Bramlett was one of the duet artists on the Jerry Lee Lewis album Last Man Standing, singing and playing guitar on "Lost Highway." In 2008, the year of his death, Bramlett released his first CD in six years, A New Kind of Blues.

Bramlett's songs have reached music "standard's" status, such as "Superstar," which he co-wrote with Leon Russell and his first wife, Bonnie Bramlett. "Superstar," was most notably recorded by The Carpenters, reached #2 on the Billboard Hot 100 pop singles chart and spent two weeks at number one on the Easy Listening chart that autumn en route to going Gold. The song was also recorded by Luther Vandross, Sonic Youth, and Usher, among others.

The Bramlett's "Never Ending Song of Love" has been covered by others, and appears on the soundtrack of RV and A Good Year. Bramlett co-wrote the Eric Clapton hit, "Let It Rain."

On January 18, 2011 Delaney Bramlett was inducted into the Mississippi Musicians Hall of Fame.

Bramlett died from complications of gall bladder surgery December 27, 2008.

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