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Jackie Ralph and Cliff Edwards were the lead vocalists for The Bells, formerly The Five Bells. Frank Mills (Music Box Dancer) was with the group. "Fly Little White Dove, Fly" was a hit in their native Canada where they also recorded a French version for

Louise (Louise Dilworth Beatty) Homer made her debut at the Metropolitan Opera in 1900 and later had concurrent positions at both the NYC icon and the Boston Opera Company. Louise played "Delilah" in the production "Samson and Delilah" and the piece

Former barbershop quartet member from Orillia, Ontario Gordon Lightfoot recorded the album "Lightfoot" in 1964 and it took two years before it was released as his debut effort. "For Lovin' Me" graced that vinyl. Peter, Paul and Mary (Peter Yarrow, Paul

Johnny Cymbal (John Henry Blair) hit with "Mr. Bass Man" with Ronnie Bright who sang bass. Johnny co-authored "Mary in the Morning". He once used his brother Derek's name when he recorded "Cinnamon" and took it to the top twenty-five and composed that

Louisianan Kris Kenner hit with "I Like It Like That", he wrote and recorded "Land of a Thousand Dances" in 1961 and hit the top 100 in 1963. Fats Domino got a writing credit although he didn't actually write it but, said he would record the tune. Allen

It was 1949 when R&B musician Ivory Joe Hunter composed and recorded "I Almost Lost My Mind". As a songwriter many are familiar with his tunes "Since I Met You Baby", "My Wish Came True" and "Ain't That Lovin' You Baby". His career was eclectic

Check her website and you'll see that Sandie Shaw (Sandra Ann Goodrich) was the first to perform behind the Iron Curtain and the last to appear in Iran. This barefoot Buddhist sang "Puppet on a String" (Bill Martin-Phil Coulter) and won the Eurovision

Very well-known in Britain, Kenny Lynch has been a television personality there for more than 50 years. During the Beatles first tour his name was on the bill. Kenny recorded "Misery", the first Beatles cover tune to be released and he appears on the

"Silhouettes" was composed by the legendary producer/songwriter Bob Crewe and Frank Slay. We start off with Bob Crewe's version. It was Bob who produced The Rays (Harold Miller, Wally Ford, Harry James and David Jones) release in 1957 and it went to

Anni-Frid "Freda" Lyngstad like other Abba members had a solo recording contract before the group did. The original of "Fernando" had lyrics by manager Stig Andersson and was produced by then boyfriend Benny Anderson. It can be found on her Swedish

Baritone/music teacher and actor Todd Duncan played the original Porgy in "Porgy and Bess" in 1935 and was the first to sing the untitled song in the motion picture "Unchained" in which he had a small part and that's how it got the title "Unchained

J. D. (John David) Souther of the Souther Hillman Furay Band co-wrote many Eagles hits including "Heartache Tonight", "Best of My Love", "How Long" and "New Kid in Town". His You can see him on the Roy Orbison Black and White Night dvd and PBS special.

One of few white performers who recorded for Motown in the sixties, the gorgeous Chris Clark was the first to record "Yester-Me, Yester-You, Yesterday" (Miller-Wells) in 1966. It was unreleased until "the Motown Collection" in 2005. Chris was nominated

Metropolitan Opera singer Christine Johnson sang the original "You'll Never Walk Alone" in the 1945 Broadway production of Rodgers and Hammerstein's Carousel. She also sang it on the original cast recording. In 1963 Gerry (Marsden) and the Pacemakers

Johnny Burnette, brother Dorsey and Paul Burlison (The Sun Rhythm Section) formed the Rock and Roll Trio and won the Ted Mack Amateur Hour. The first demo for "You're Sixteen" was recorded by Dorsey Burnette in mid 1960. The second demo was made by

The "Aquarius/Let the Sunshine In" medley (Rado-Ragni-MacDermott) comes from the 1967 "tribal rock" musical and movie "Hair". Other hits from the production include: "Hair" by the Cowsills, Three Dog Night's "Easy to be Hard" and Oliver's "Good Morning

In 1928 The Georgians (leader Frank Guarente and members of the Paul Specht Orchestra) recorded "Way Down Yonder in New Orleans" (Creamer-Layton) from "Strut Miss Lizzle". Freddy "Boom, Boom:" Cannon (Frederick Picariello) hit the top three with the

Joe South (Joseph Alfred Souter) hit with Grammy winning "Games People Play" but was more of a composer with such successes as "Down in the Boondocks" and "I Knew You When" for Billy Joe Royal, "One Bad Apple" by The Osmonds, "Hush" for Deep Purple and

Listed as a traditional American folksong, "The John B. Sails" was included in a collection by Carl Sandburg in the twenties. Alan Lomax included it in his collection "Deep River of Song" as "Histe Up the John B. Sails" by the Cleveland Simmon's Group

Shortly before his death in 1935 George Gershwin himself supervised Helen Jepson's recording of Porgy and Bess including the classic "Summertime". Helen sang with the Paul Whiteman Orchestra and sang along side Rudy Vallee, not only that but later she

The Rouse Brothers (Jack, Ervin and Gordon) recorded the bluegrass/fiddle classic "The Orange Blossom Special" in 1939. Ervin composed the tune and it's been said that he refused to join the Grand Ole Opry. Johnny Cash titled a 1965 album "Orange

David and Jonathan are characters from the bible. Roger Cook (Blue Mink, the Pipkins) and Roger Greenaway were David and Jonathan, the singers. Their biggest hit was a cover of the Beatles "Michelle". They were together, with others and individually

Regazzi del Sole (Children of the Sun) recorded the Italian version of "Don't You Just Know It" and it's posted here just for the fun of it! It was New Orleans Huey Smith who composed and originally recorded "Sea Cruise". His record company erased

In 1934 Kelly Pace and inmates of Cummins Prison Farm in Gould, Arkansas were the first to record "Rock Island Line". It was part of the Lomax collection of American folk music. Leadbelly (Huddie Ledbetter) recorded the tune a couple of years later and

Paul Evans hit with "Seven Little Girls" and "Happy Go Lucky Me". Paul is also a gifted composer with hits like "Roses Are Red" for Bobby Vinton, "I Gotta Know" by Elvis Presley, "Happiness Is" for the Ray Coniff Singers", "Johnny Will" by Pat Boone,

"Hound Dog" started with composers Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller who produced it themselves with Big Mama Thornton in 1952. The Japanese version is included for variety because the tune was sung in just about every genre and language since it's

In 1962 Gerry Goffin and Carole King wrote "The Loco-Motion" and their babysitter, Little Eva (Eva Narcissus Boyd) had the biggest hit of her life when it reached the top chart spot. France's Sylvie Vartan had the hit in her native country the same

Tom Waits composed "Downtown Train" for his 1985 album "Rain Dogs". Patty Smyth recorded the tune for her 1987 solo effort "Never Enough" with help from members of her former group "The Hooters". Rod Stewart hit the top five with "Downtown Train" in

John Phillips, father of MacKenzie and leader of The Mamas and The Papas (John, wife Michelle, Denny Doherty and Cass Elliott) composed "San Francisco (be sure to wear some flowers in your hair)" for Scott McKenzie. They were both in the group The

Dick Glasser wrote and released "I Will" on Liberty Records in 1964 under the pseudonym Dick Lory. From Liberty, he went to Warner Brothers Records where he produced The Everly Brothers as well as Freddy Cannon. After Warner's he moved to Reprise

British composer Barry Mason's credits include "Love Grows (where my rosemary goes)" by Edison Lighthouse, "Delilah" for Tom Jones plus "A Man Without Love", "Winter World of Love", "The Last Waltz" and "Les Bicyclettes de Belsize" (instrumental theme

"Where or When" comes from the 1931 Rodgers and Hart musical "Babes in Arms" where it was sung as a duet. The Hal Kemp Orchestra recorded the song the same year and took it to the number one spot. Members of his group at one time included Skinnay Ennis,

The Sultans "Don't be Angry" slow take was recorded in 1952. The composer is Clyde Wright, Nappy Brown's nephew and former fellow band member in the Selah Jubilee Singers who were actually the secular "Sultans". The Nappy Brown (Napoleon Brown Culp)

The Magnificent Seven motion picture was based on The Seven Samurai and starred Yul Brynner, Charles Bronson, Steve McQueen, James Coburn and Robert Vaughn. Academy Award, Emmy and Golden Globe winner and Elmer Bernstein. Among the movie themes he

Once a guitarist on the road for Tina Charles, Bruce Woolley co-wrote "Video Killed the Radio Star" (Trevor Horne, Geoffrey Downes, Woolley) and recorded it as "Woolley and the Camera Club" on the 1979 album "English Garden" featuring Thomas Dolby on

Award winning composer Bob Morrison co-authored "Lookin' For Love" the Johnny Lee hit from the movie Urban Cowboy. He and Debbie Hupp wrote "You Decorated My Life". Kenny Rogers took the tune to the top of the country chart and into the top ten of

The Mugwumps were Cass Elliott, Denny Doherty (soon to be with the Mamas and the Papas), John Sebastian, Zal Yanovsky (soon to be The Lovin' Spoonful) and Jim Hendricks (not that one!) who wrote the Johnny Rivers hit "Summer Rain". Although not on their

Playwright, poet, actor, producer, musician and children's author Chris Gantry (Christopher Cedzich) wrote and recorded "Dreams of the Everyday Housewife" for his 1968 album "Introspection". Glen Campbell recorded it on his "Wichita Lineman" album in

Grammy winning Joe Simon like so many other R&B singers started with a gospel group, the Golden West Gospel Singers, and turned secular. In 1971 he released "You Are Everything" (Linda Creed, Thom Bell) from the "Drowning In a Sea of Love" album

Johnnie and Jonie (Mosby) were husband and wife and the first to record "Tijuana Jail" (Denny Thompson) in 1959. In 1992 Joanie became the oldest U.S. woman to have a child through in vitro fertilization at age 52. The Kingston Trio (Dave Guard, Bob

It's said that although the song was composed in 1975 for Brenda Lee she never did record it. In 1977 B.J. (Billy Joe) Thomas was the first to record "Here You Come Again" (Barry Mann, Cynthia Weil) on his "B. J. Thomas" studio album. "Here You Come