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Leona Williams and her Dixie Band aka The Original Memphis Five recorded "Sugar Blues" (Williams) in 1922. Clyde McCoy's instrumental version of "Sugar Blues" hit for the first time in 1931. It reached number two on Billboard and became his theme song.

The 1986 soundtrack to "Top Gun" contained lots of hits and one was "Danger Zone". Former lead vocalist with Sergio Mendes and once a backup singer for Laura Branigan, Alice Cooper, Janet Jackson, Barry Manilow, Eddy Money, Anne Murray, David Lee Roth and

"Samba de Verao" (Valle - Valle) was first recorded by the composer, singer and producer Marcos Valle in 1965. The next year he and his wife were members of the group Sergio Mendes and Brazil '66. Brazil's Walter Wanderley (Mendonca) issued "Summer

"All Fired Up" (Kerryn Tolhurst) was issued by short lived Australian group the Rattling Sabres (Robert Price, Kerryn Tolhurst, Chong Lim, John Lee and Leyton Greening) in 1987. The single did not chart outside their native country. Grammy winner Pat

D. L. Byron composed "Shadows Of The Night" for the 1980 film "Times Square" starring Tim Curry but it wasn't used because it wasn't considered commercial enough. David Byron was an opening act for both Bob Seger and The Boomtown Rats. Like so many other

The story behind "Baby, It's Cold Outside" from Wikipedia: "Loesser wrote the duet in 1944 and premiered the song with his wife, Lynn Garland, at their Navarro Hotel in New York housewarming party, and performed it toward the end of the evening,

Sam Cooke's nephew, R. B. (Ronald Bertram) Greaves was first to release "Fire And Rain" (James Taylor) in 1970 as a single and watched as it dented the Top One Hundred at number eighty-two. Also in 1970 James Taylor took his own "Fire And Rain" as

Leon Russell (Claude Bridges) recorded "A Song For You" with his Steinway in 1970 for the opening track of his self-titled debut solo album. Just a few of the artists involved: Eric Clapton, George Harrison, Ringo Starr, Mick Jagger, Charlie Watts, Bill

South Philly crooner and singer for The Woody Herman Band, Joe Valino (Paolino) recorded "Learnin' The Blues" (Dolores Silvers) in 1954. The composer was really Vicki Hollander who was named Miss Press Photographer of 1948. According to a Philadelphia

First a successful radio show and then a television hit, Jack Webb created and starred in Dragnet. The original theme was titled "Dragnet Ahead" when it hit television in 1951. The series continued until 1958. Later the show was syndicated as "Badge 714".

Bruce Springsteen originally recorded "From Small Things (Big Things One Day Come)" for the 1979 album "The River". For some reason it was not included on the LP and didn't surface until it was included on a bonus disc for "The Essential Bruce

This is Pete Townshend and the demo of "Squeezebox" complete with enough double entendres to build a wall. This is from Pete's LP "Scoop". At the time Pete wrote the song he though he may have been too old to play rock and roll. From the 1975 album "The

The original Don Mclean (the third) song "American Pie" topped Billboard in 1972. Don had other hits like "Crying" and "Vincent" but this song defined his music. He is one great songwriter, just listen to "If We Try", "And I Love You So", "Wonderful Baby"

Film score composer, producer and noted keyboardist Patrick Leonard plays "La Isla Bonita" (The Beautiful Island) recorded in 2008. The tune was originally offered to Michael Jackson who passed on it but Madonna certainly didn't. Patrick joined Frank

William Gillespie sang "Blues In The Night" (Harold Arlen - Johnny Mercer) in the 1941 movie of the same name. Wikipedia: "When they finished writing the song, Mercer called a friend, singer Margaret Whiting, and asked if they could come over and play it

Songwriter, singer Barrett Strong's "Money (That's What I Want)" (Berry Gordy - Janie Bradford) was the first hit for Motown although it was distributed nationally by Chess Records in 1960. The single reached number two on the R&B chart while peaking

Katy Perry's (Hudson) "Teenage Dream" (Katy Perry - Lukasz Gottwald - Max Martin - Benjamin Levin - Bonnie McKee) was a chart topping single from the also chart topping 2010 LP of the same name. Wikipedia: "According to Nielsen Broadcast Data Systems,

Chicago Cubs fan Steve Goodman wrote and recorded "City Of New Orleans" for his 1971 self-titled album. The soon to be Grammy winning song had Paul Anka as executive producer, Kris Kristofferson and Norman Putman as co-producers and includes a

The former Mrs. Stevie Wonder, Syretta (Rita Wright), recorded the demo for "Love Child" (R. Dean Taylor - Frank Wilson - Pam Sawyer - Deke Richards - Henry Cosby) in 1968. Diana Ross and The Supremes (Cindy Birdsong and Mary Wilson) topped the pop and

Singing cowboy Stuart Hamblen wrote and recorded "It Is No Secret (What God Can Do) in 1950. The single peaked at number eight on the Country chart. Stuart turned to substance abuse and was saved by the late Billy Graham. A friend asked him about the

The enjoyable television special shilling cds called "Country Family Reunion: The Songwriters" featured Dickey Lee (Lipscomb) who hit with "Patches", "I Saw Linda Yesterday", "Laurie (Strange Things Happen)" and composed the country classic "She Thinks I

Multi- award winner Michel Legrand sings "Les Moulins de Mon Cœur" (Michel Legrand - Eddy Marney) recorded in 1969. "The Windmills of Your Mind" (Michel Legrand -Alan Bergman - Marilyn Bergman) with the English lyric appeared in the 1968 film "The

An original member of The Impressions, Jerry "The Iceman" Butler issued the million seller "A Brand New Me" (Gamble - Butler - Bell) as produced by the team of Gamble and Huff. This is a track on the 19769 "Ice On Ice" album. Recorded in Philadelphia