Thursday, May 14, 2015

Vera Lynn

Please click on each of the web-links below with your speakers on :-


We'll Meet Again - Vera Lynn

My Choice - Vera Lynn: The White Cliffs of Dover

Blue birds over the white cliffs of Dover were the Spitfire and Hurricane fighter aircraft taking on the Germans when they appeared on the horizon to attack the citizenry below. People watched the air battles from the cliffs. The spitfires and Hurricanes had blue underbellies. Some of the planes were blue, too, but those that weren't still had blue underbellies, hence bluebirds.

Vera Lynn - Lili Marlene
https://youtu.be/ZSMuTm649Hk

Marlene Dietrich - Lili marleen song and text
https://youtu.be/D-szCTIE4q0

Dame Vera Lynn performs at 1990 Royal Variety Performance


Vera Lynn

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Dame Vera Lynn
Lynn at the War and Peace Show, July 2009
Background information
Birth name
Vera Margaret Welch
Born
20 March 1917 (age 98)
East Ham, Essex (now London), England
Years active
1935–1995
Dame Vera Lynn, DBE (born Vera Margaret Welch on 20 March 1917),[1] widely known as "The Forces' Sweetheart" is an English singer, songwriter and actress whose musical recordings and performances were enormously popular during the Second World War. During the war she toured Egypt, India and Burma, giving outdoor concerts for the troops. The songs most associated with her are "We'll Meet Again", "The White Cliffs of Dover", "A Nightingale Sang in Berkeley Square" and "There'll Always Be an England".
She remained popular after the war, appearing on radio and television in the UK and the United States and recording such hits as "Auf Wiederseh'n Sweetheart" and her UK Number one single "My Son, My Son".
In 2009 she became the oldest living artist to make it to No. 1 on the British album chart, at the age of 92.[2] She has devoted much time and energy to charity work connected with ex-servicemen, disabled children and breast cancer. She is still held in great affection by veterans of theSecond World War and in 2000 was named the Briton who best exemplified the spirit of the twentieth century.[3]

Early life[edit]

Vera Lynn was born Vera Margaret Welch on 20 March 1917 in East Ham, in what was then the county of Essex, now East London. When she began performing publicly at the age of seven, she adopted her grandmother's maiden name (Lynn) as her stage name.[4] Her first radio broadcast, with the Joe Loss Orchestra, was in 1935. At this point she was being featured on records released by dance bands including those of Loss and of Charlie Kunz.[5] In 1936 her first solo record was released on the Crown label, "Up the Wooden Hill to Bedfordshire".[6] This label was absorbed by Decca Records in 1938.[7] After a short stint with Loss she stayed with Kunz for a few years during which she recorded several standard musical pieces. In 1937, she moved to the aristocrat of British dance bands, Bert Ambrose.[8]

She is best known for her 1939 recording of the popular song "We'll Meet Again", written by Ross Parker and Hughie Charles;[9] the nostalgic lyrics ("We'll meet again, don't know where, don't know when, but I know we'll meet again some sunny day") were very popular during the war and made the song one of its emblematic hits. During the Phoney War, the Daily Express asked British servicemen to name their favourite musical performers: Vera Lynn came out on top and as a result became known as "the Forces' Sweetheart".[10]
In 1941, during the darkest days of the Second World War, Lynn began her own radio programme, Sincerely Yours, sending messages to British troops serving abroad.[5] She and her quartet performed songs most requested by the soldiers. Lynn also visited hospitals to interview new mothers and send personal messages to their husbands overseas.[11] Her other great wartime hit was "The White Cliffs of Dover", words by Nat Burton, music by Walter Kent.[12] In 1943 she appeared in the film We'll Meet Again.[13] Contrary to later reports, she neither sang nor recorded "Rose of England" during this time and it was only in 1966 when her producer, David Gooch, selected it for her album More Hits of the Blitz that she became familiar with it. The album itself was a follow-up to Hits of the Blitz produced by Norman Newell.
During the war years she joined ENSA and toured Egypt, India and Burma,[14] giving outdoor concerts for the troops. In March 1944 she went to Shamsheernugger airfield to entertain the troops before the Battle of Kohima. Her host and lifelong friend Captain Bernard Holden recalled "her courage and her contribution to morale".[15] In 1985 it was announced that she would receive the Burma Star for entertaining British guerrilla units in Japanese-occupied Burma.[16] She is one of the last surviving major entertainers of the war years.


Viagra Could Stop Malaria

Telltale Bacteria From Criminals' Guts Could Crack Cases

Wednesday, May 13, 2015

Louis Armstrong


Please click on each of the web-links below with your speakers on :-


Louis Armstrong & Danny Kaye, "When the saints go marching in"

How Jazz Was Born - Danny Kaye


Louis Armstrong - Hello Dolly Live

Louis Armstrong - The Best Of A Wonderful World (Full Album)

Louis Armstrong

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Louis Armstrong
Louis Armstrong's stage personality matched his cornet and trumpet playing.
Background information
Born
August 4, 1901
New Orleans, Louisiana, U.S.
Died
July 6, 1971 (aged 69)
Corona, Queens, New York City, U.S.
Occupation(s)
Musician
Instruments
Years active
c. 1914–1971
Associated acts
Louis Armstrong (August 4, 1901 – July 6, 1971),[1] nicknamed Satchmo[2] or Pops, was an American jazz trumpeter, singer, and an influential figure in jazz music.
Coming to prominence in the 1920s as an "inventive" trumpet and cornet player, Armstrong was a foundational influence in jazz, shifting the focus of the music from collective improvisation to solo performance. With his instantly recognizable gravelly voice, Armstrong was also an influential singer, demonstrating great dexterity as an improviser, bending the lyrics and melody of a song for expressive purposes. He was also skilled at scat singing (vocalizing using sounds and syllables instead of actual lyrics).
Renowned for his charismatic stage presence and voice almost as much as for his trumpet-playing, Armstrong's influence extends well beyond jazz music, and by the end of his career in the 1960s, he was widely regarded as a profound influence on popular music in general. Armstrong was one of the first truly popular African-American entertainers to "cross over", whose skin color was secondary to his music in an America that was severely racially divided. He rarely publicly politicized his race, often to the dismay of fellow African-Americans, but took a well-publicized stand for desegregation during the Little Rock Crisis. His artistry and personality allowed him socially acceptable access to the upper echelons of American society that were highly restricted for men of color.

Too many drugs being prescribed.

The Machine That Could Replace Anesthesiologists - partially.

Tuesday, May 12, 2015

Caterina Valente

Please click on each of the web-links below with your speakers on :-


Caterina Valente - Quando, Quando -1962-


Besame mucho - Caterina Valente

La Paloma (Caterina Valente).wmv

Bing Crosby & Caterina Valente - Medley

Louis Armstrong, Caterina Valente, Danny Kaye


Caterina Valente

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Valente in 1966
Caterina Valente (born 14 January 1931, Paris, France) is an Italian singer, guitarist, dancer, and actress. She was born into an Italian artist family. Her father, Giuseppe, was a well-known accordion player; her mother, Maria, a musical clown. She had three siblings, one of whom, Silvio (as Silvio Francesco), was also active in show business.

Life and career[edit]

Caterina Valente, 1984

In 1952, she married the juggler Erik van Aro (Gerd Eric Horst Scholz). He recognized her talent and accompanied her in her initial years of worldwide success, although they later divorced. Their son is the singer Eric van Aro. In 1953, she made her first recordings with Kurt Edelhagen. Soon afterwards she achieved success with songs such as "Malagueña", "The Breeze and I", and "Dreh dich nicht um" with the Werner Müller orchestra. In 1955, she was featured on The Colgate Comedy Hour with Gordon MacRae. In the mid 1960s, Valente worked with Claus Ogerman and recorded material in both Italian and English that he arranged/conducted and/or composed on the Decca [1] and London [2] labels. Between 1966 and 1972 she was a frequent guest on the Dean Martin Show.