- Ray Charles
Ray Charles (born Charles Raymond Offenberg, September 13, 1918 in Chicago, Illinois) is an American musician, singer, songwriter, vocal arranger and conductor who is best- known as organizer and leader of The Ray Charles Singers. The Ray Charles Singers were featured on Perry Como's records, radio shows and television shows for 35 years. - Andrew Loog Oldham
Andrew Loog Oldham (born January 29 1944) is an English rock and roll producer, impresario and author. He was best known as the manager of The Rolling Stones in the 1960s, taking a flamboyant style inspired by his role model and friend Phil Spector. A celebrated and self-proclaimed hustler who spent teenage summers swindling tourists in French resort towns, … - Dick Rowe
Dick Rowe (d. June 6 1986) was an A&R man at Decca Records from the 1940s to the 1960s. He is historically presented in popular musical history as, "the man who turned down The Beatles". This is somewhat unfair as he, unlike most A&R men, was at least willing to give the Beatles an audition. He has often been quoted as saying "Guitar groups are on their way out, Mr. Epstein". - Bobby Darin
Bobby Darin (born Walden Robert Cassotto) was one of the most popular American big band performers and rock and roll teen idols of the late 1950s. He is widely respected for being a multi-talented, versatile performer who conquered many music genres, including folk, country, pop, and jazz. He was also an award-winning actor, songwriter and music business entrepreneur. - Red Foley
Clyde Julian "Red" Foley was a country music singer. Foley was born in Blue Lick, Kentucky. He began playing the guitar and the harmonica as a young boy and at age seventeen he won first prize in a statewide talent show. Ultimately he signed with Decca Records in 1941. His hit songs include "Chattanooga Shoe Shine Boy", "Birmingham Bounce", "Old Shep", "Sugarfoot Rag", and "Tennessee Saturday Night". "Peace in the Valley", backed up by The Sunshine Boys, … - Gordon Jenkins
Gordon Hill Jenkins (12 May 1910-1 May 1984) was an American arranger who was an influential figure in popular music in the 1940s and 1950s, renowned for his lush string arrangements. Jenkins worked with the Andrews Sisters, Frank Sinatra, Louis Armstrong, Judy Garland, Nat King Cole and Ella Fitzgerald, among other singers. - Andy White
Andy White (born 1930, Glasgow, Scotland) is a drummer, best known for playing drums on The Beatles first single, "Love Me Do" - White was in fact on the 7" single version released in the United States. He also played drums on the "Love Me Do" B-side, "P.S. I Love You." White was a studio drummer in the 1950s and 1960s in London, recording with artists such as Billy Fury, Marlene Dietrich, Herman's Hermits, Bert Weedon and Tom Jones. - Mike Smith
Larry Michael Smith, commonly known as Mike Smith, was born October 3 1939 and lived in various small towns in Kansas until moving to Hollywood in 1958. Smith first appeared on Decca Records in 1960 with a rockabilly backbeat song, "Sara Ruth" which was written as a joke for a high school friend. The other side of the record, "Week of Loneliness," had a limited success in the Bay Area of California, and in his adopted home town of Stockton, … - Dave Clark
Dave Clark was a pioneering African-American record promoter. Born in Jackson, Tennessee, Clark became interested in music after a teacher gave him piano and violin lessons. He later learned band music and performed as a teenager with traveling minstrel shows. He graduated from Lane College in Jackson and attended Juilliard School in New York. He began promoting for Decca Records in 1938, beginning with Jimmie Lunceford. - Billy Fury
Originally from Wavertree in South Liverpool, Billy Fury was born on April 17, 1940, at Smithdown Hospital, now Sefton General Hospital, Smithdown Road, Liverpool, Merseyside. He was an internationally successful pop singer from the late 1950s to the early 1960s, and remained an active songwriter until the 1980s. He died on January 28, 1983 at St Mary Abbott's Hospital, Paddington, West London. - Paul Cohen
Paul Cohen was an American country music producer. Cohen first entered the record business with Columbia in the late 1920s, but in 1934 joined Decca’s newly formed American operation, organized by two brothers, Jack and Dave Kapp—old Chicago friends of his. Cohen moved to Cincinnati to become Decca’s midwestern branch manager in 1935; in this role he was responsible for scouting and signing new talent in addition to marketing records. - Jack Kapp
Jack Kapp was a record company executive with Brunswick Records who became the head of the American branch of Decca Records. After his death, his brother Dave Kapp took over American Decca. Dave Kapp later founded Kapp Records based in New York. - Tony Martin
Tony Martin (born December 25 1912) is an American actor and traditional pop singer. Martin was born Alvin Morris in Oakland, California to Jewish immigrants from Poland. He received a soprano saxophone as a gift from his grandmother at ten. In his grammar school glee club, he became an instrumentalist and a boy soprano singer. He formed his first band, named "The Red Peppers," when he was at Oakland Technical High School, … - Sy Oliver
Melvin "Sy" Oliver (born December 17, 1910 in Battle Creek, Michigan - died May 28, 1988 in New York City) was a jazz arranger, trumpeter, composer, singer and bandleader. His mother was a piano teacher and his father was a multi-instrumentalist who made a name for himself demonstrating saxophones at a time that instrument was little used outside of marching bands. Oliver left home at 17 to play with Zack White and his Chocolate Beau Brummels and later with Alphonse Trent. - Graeme Edge
Graeme Edge (born Graeme Charles Edge, 30 March 1941, in Rocester, Staffordshire, England) is best known as the drummer and a songwriter for the Moody Blues, but has also led his own outfit from time to time, the Graeme Edge Band. The Graeme Edge Band released two albums in the 1970s. The first was "Kick Off Your Muddy Boots" in 1975 on the Threshold record label, a subsidiary of the Decca Records, catalogue umber THS 15. - Percy Faith
Percy Faith was a band-leader, orchestrator and composer, known for his lush arrangements of pop standards. He is often credited with creating the "easy listening" or "mood music" format which became staples of American popular music in the 1950s and continued well into the 1960s. Though his professional orchestra-leading career began at the height of the swing era, Faith refined and rethought orchestration techniques, including use of large string sections, … - Tony Meehan
Daniel Joseph Anthony 'Tony' Meehan, (March 2 1943 - November 28 2005), was one of the founder members of the British group The Shadows, along with Jet Harris, Hank B. Marvin and Bruce Welch. He played drums on all the early Cliff Richard and The Shadows hits and also played on the early hits the Shadows had as an instrumental group. Tony Meehan was born at New End Hospital, New End, Hampstead, North London, England. - Sammy Kaye
Sammy Kaye (born Samuel Zarnocay, Jr. on March 13, 1910 in Lakewood, Ohio -- died on June 2, 1987 in Ridgewood, New Jersey) was a famous U.S. bandleader and songwriter. He graduated from Rocky River High School in Rocky River, Ohio in 1927. He attended Ohio University in Athens, Ohio where he was a member of Theta Chi Fraternity. Kaye could play the saxophone and the clarinet, but he never featured himself as a soloist on either one. - Bobby Helms
Bobby Helms was an American singer who enjoyed his peak success in 1957. - Clarence Williams
Clarence Williams (October 8, 1898 - November 6, 1965) was an American jazz pianist, composer, promoter, vocalist, theatrical producer, and publisher. Williams was born in Plaquemine, Louisiana, ran away from home at age 12 to join Billy Kersand's Traveling Minstrel Show, then moved to New Orleans. At first Williams worked shining shoes and doing odd jobs, but soon became known as a singer and master of ceremonies. - Jean-Yves Thibaudet
Jean-Yves Thibaudet (b. 7 September 1961) is a French pianist born in Lyon, France to non-professional musical parents. His father played the violin and his mother, a somewhat accomplished pianist herself, introduced the instrument to Jean-Yves in 1966. Thibaudet thus began seriously studying the piano with several prominent teachers and made his first public appearance at the age of seven. - Isham Jones
Isham Jones (31 January, 1894 - 19 October, 1956) was a United States bandleader, violinist, saxophonist, bassist and songwriter. Jones was born in Coalton, Ohio, grew up in Saginaw, Michigan, where he started his first band. In 1915 he moved to Chicago, Illinois, which remained his base through 1924. After that he toured England before reestablishing himself in New York City. - John Wood
John Wood is an English sound engineer, best known for his work with the Incredible String Band, Pink Floyd, Nick Drake, Nico, and Squeeze. Wood began his career as an editor at Decca Records, working on their classical catalogue. In 1966, he met Joe Boyd, who employed him as chief engineer at Sound Techniques studio. The two formed a partnership, whereby Wood tended to the record's sound, while Boyd looked after it's musical direction. - Bob Thiele
Bob Thiele (July 27, 1922 - January 30, 1996) was an American record producer. His wife was the singer Teresa Brewer. He hosted a jazz radio show when he was 14. He also played clarinet and led a band in the New York area. At 17 he founded the Signature Records label and recorded many jazz greats, including Lester Young, Errol Garner and, in 1943, Coleman Hawkins. Signature folded in 1948 and he joined Decca Records in 1952, running its Coral Records subsidiary. - Mike Leander
Mike Leander was an arranger and record producer for Decca Records in the 1960s and Bell Records in the 1970s and worked with such artists as Marianne Faithfull, Billy Fury, Marc Bolan, Joe Cocker, The Small Faces, Van Morrison, Alan Price, Peter Frampton, Keith Richards, Shirley Bassey, Lulu, Jimmy Page, Roy Orbison, Brian Jones,and Gene Pitney. He is perhaps best known as co-writer and producer for Gary Glitter throughout the 1970s. - Floyd Tillman
Floyd Tillman country musician who in the 1930s-40s helped create the western swing and honky tonk styles of music. Tillman was inducted into the Songwriters’ Hall of Fame in 1970 and the Country Music Hall of Fame in 1984. Born in Ryan, Oklahoma December 8th, 1914 and died in Bacliff, Texas August 22nd, 2003. Tillman grew up in the cotton-mill town of Post, Texas as a sharecropper's son. One of his early jobs was with Western Union as a telegraph operator. - Sonny Burke
Sonny Burke (born Joseph Francis Burke on March 22 1914 in Scranton, Pennsylvania) was a big band leader. He died May 31 1980. In 1937, he graduated from Duke University. During the 1930s and 1940s he was a big band leader in New York (including Sam Donahue's band) and during the 1940s and 1950s he worked as a band arranger for the Charlie Spivak and Jimmy Dorsey bands, among others. He is credited as co-composer of "Midnight Sun", … - Lew Wasserman
Lew Wasserman (March 15, 1913 - June 3, 2002) was a Hollywood agent and studio executive credited with first creating and then taking apart the studio system in a career spanning more than six decades. The son of Russian Jewish immigrants in Cleveland, Ohio, Wasserman started out as a booking agent for the Music Corporation of America (MCA) under its founder Dr. Jules Stein. - Ted Weems
Wilfred Theodore (Ted) Weems (originally Wemyes) (26 September, 1901 - 6 May, 1963) was a United States bandleader and musician. Born in Pitcairn, Pennsylvania, Weems learned to play the violin and trombone. He attended the University of Pennsylvania, where he and his brother Art organized a small dance band. Going professional in 1923, Weems toured for the MCA Corporation, recording for several years on Victor Records. - Buddy Johnson
Buddy Johnson (born Woodrow Wilson Johnson was an influential jazz and blues pianist and bandleader active from the 1930s through the 1960s. His songs were often performed by his sister Ella Johnson, most notably "Since I Fell for You" which later became a jazz standard. Born in Darlington, South Carolina, Buddy took piano lessons as a child, and classical music remained one of his passions. In 1938 he moved to New York City, … - John Culshaw
John Royds Culshaw, was a pioneering classical record producer for Decca Records. Along with Fred Gaisberg and Walter Legge he was one of the most influential producers of classical recordings. "The Times" said of him that ‘he stood in that great tradition of propagandists from Henry Wood to Leonard Bernstein, who seek to bring their love and knowledge of music to the widest audience.’ - Rex Allen
Rex Allen was an American actor, singer, and songwriter. Born Rex Elvie Allen to Horace Allen and Faye Clark on a ranch in Mud Springs Canyon, forty miles from Willcox, Arizona, Rex Allen would grow up to become a popular entertainer known as "The Arizona Cowboy." As a boy he played guitar and sang at local functions with his fiddle-playing father until high school graduation when he toured the southwest as a rodeo rider. - Connee Boswell
Constance Boswell (December 3, 1907 - October 11, 1976) was an American female vocalist born in Kansas City, Missouri but raised in New Orleans, Louisiana. With her sisters, Martha and Helvetia "Vet" Boswell, she performed in the 1930's as The Boswell Sisters and became a highly influential singing group during this period via recordings and radio. Connee herself is widely considered one of the greatest jazz female vocalists and was a major influence on Ella Fitzgerald. - Billy Williamson
Billy Williamson (formal name William F. Williamson; February 9, 1925 - March 22, 1996) was the steel guitar player for Bill Haley and His Saddlemen and its successor group Bill Haley & His Comets from 1949 to 1963. A founding member of both the Saddlemen and the Comets, Williamson often acted as the band's emcee and comic relief during live concerts; he also played lead guitar on occasion. He was with the band when they recorded "Rock Around the Clock" in 1954, … - Matt Dusk
Matthew-Aaron Dusk (born November 19, 1978 in Toronto, Ontario, Canada) is a Canadian jazz musician / vocalist. His major label debut album "Two Shots" has been certified gold in Canada and he has appeared on Mark Burnett's reality TV show "The Casino". From an early age, Matt Dusk wanted to become a performer. At the age of seven, he was accepted into the St. Michael's Choir School, where he remained for eleven years. - Stanley Black
Stanley Black OBE (June 14, 1913 - November 27, 2002) was an English light music conductor, arranger and pianist. He wrote and arranged many film scores and recorded prolifically for the Decca label (including "London" and "Phase 4"). Beginning with jazz collaborations with American musicians such as Coleman Hawkins and Benny Carter during the 1930s, … - Ronnie Self
Ronnie Self (July 5 1938 - August 28 1981) was a rockabilly singer and songwriter. His solo career was unsuccessful, despite being signed to contracts with Columbia and then Decca from the late 1950s through the early 1960s, he failed to chart a single song. However, Brenda Lee's cover of his song "I'm Sorry" became a major pop classic. - Arthur Prysock
Arthur Prysock was an American jazz singer best known for his live shows and his baritone influenced by Billy Eckstine. Born in Spartanburg, South Carolina, Prysock moved to Hartford, Connecticut to work in the aircraft industry during World War II. In 1944 bandleader Buddy Johnson signed him as a vocalist, and Prysock was a mainstay of the live performance circuits. Prysock sang on several of Johnson’s hits on Decca Records ("Jet My Love", … - Earl Grant
Earl Grant (January 20 1931 - June 111970) was an American easy listening pianist, Hammond organist, and vocalist popular in the 1950s and 60's Born in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, Grant was gifted with keyboard skills and a fine singing voice. Other instruments he was skilled at playing were trumpet, drums and Hammond organ. Grant attended four music schools, then became a music teacher, augmenting his income by performing in clubs during his army service, stationed in Texas. - Cal Smith
Cal Smith (born July 04, 1932) is an American country musician, most famous for his 1974 hit "Country Bumpkin."
|
| |