N°14 ELVIS PRESLEY - BLACK STAR / FLAMING STAR

Allright, number 13 had a curse over his I guess since I didn't came on posting number 14 but here it is.And to compensate I'll post 2 songs at once: Black Star and Flaming Star.

Previous song we hand the King's Singers but now we have "The King" himself and the song was previously recorded as "Black Star" for the 1960's movie with the same name.... only the producers changed the name shortly before it's release int "Flaming Star" and Elvis had to re-record the song with that title name. Black Star was actually never released but apparantly still some footage exists and got posted on you tube. You'll also find it under the title of Flaming Star.

Do I still need to introduce Mr Presley? I guess not so I'll keep it short. He made Rock And Roll big. He was the star of Rock And Roll and up to now he must be one of the best selling solo artists ever. Elvis Aaron Presley wasn't just a singer/entertainer. He was also one of the best actors of his era. He played in over 35 films such as Love Me Tender, Flaming Star (off course), Jailhouse Rock and King Creole. Naming these movies is naming some of his greatest hits.

He met his wife doing his duty in Germany. He and Priscilla got married in 1967 and a year later Lisa Marie Presley, his only child was born. The family settled at the famous Graceland. 6 Years later Priscilla and Elvis split up and this break up would be the start of his 'downfall'. He started to use a lot of medicines to counter the stress and the physical pains he was going through causing him to gain weigth rapidly. The once slim performer would grow into a fat plump, but still excellent entertainer. His beautifull jumpsuits and sideburns gave him his specific look, forever copied by his fans.

Elvis died in 1977 but ever since his legend lives on and often he's seen 'alive' around the globe. He died in his bathroom at home in Memphis, Tenessee. Officially a cardiac arrest, unofficially it is said it was an overdose of pills. We'll never know.

What we do know is that his music will live on, forever and ever !

N°13 THE KING'S SINGERS - THE BARBER OF SEVILLE (OVERTURE)

I'm totally not into classical music but the link into the Barber of Seville couldn't be left alone. I knew the play, I didn't knew the overture and certainly I've never seen The King's Singers perform their acapella style of performing.

They're a British, six-headed accapelle music ensemble containing a tenor, 2 countertenors, a bass voice and 2 baritones. They're always six and the group switched members throughout its 40 year career. Today, none of the forming members, are still participating in The King's Singers. There were up to now about 20 different King's Singers.

They released many different records going from classical ballads to the more modern pop songs. Always performed with only their voice and sounds. A performance by the Singers is always a mix between the funny faces, little ticks, many little sounds and six beautifull voices trying to conquer the hearts of the audience.

You have to get used to their style of performing but if, in anyway, you appreciate the performance itself, you'll think it's pretty good.

Oh and if anyone doubts. The Barber of Seville is an opera created by Rossini. One never knews when you can score in a quiz or anything with it!

Enjoy !

N°12 CHRIS DE BURGH - SPANISH TRAIN

Although he’s Irish, Christopher John Davison was born in 1948 in Venado Tuerta, Santa Fe, Argentina. His whole lifetime he’s been travelling around the world. First with his family since his father was a British diplomat. In his childhood he lived in Argentina, Malta, Nigeria, Zaire, … before ending up at his grandfather’s place; a castle in Bargy Castle. His parents converted the castle into a small hotel where Christopher entertained the guests from time to time.

Chris took his mother’s maiden name De Burgh as his stage name when he signed A&M Records in 1974 after graduating with Master of Arts degree in French, English and History from the world wide known Trinity College in Dublin. Chris always had a story to tell with each album and it was clear he was ready to spread his wings away from the place he grew up in as he named it ‘Far Beyond These Castle Walls’. This album was very much folk inspired and it conquered Europe and South America. So did all of his other 70’s albums which never impressed in the UK and Ireland.

In the early 1980’s he first released an album collecting his best 1970’s songs. This album was called ‘Best Moves’ followed by a new album ‘The Getaway’ which contained his first real UK successes. The best known song from this latest album is ‘Don’t pay the Ferryman’. Later in the 80’s he’d scored his ultimate hit with ‘Lady In Red’. This song from the album ‘Into The Light’ was inspired by the moment he met his wife Diane in a crowded nightclub. He’d later explain the song as: “Often people never quite appreciate that the most important person in their lives is taken for granted, and how after a while you fail to notice the things that brought you together.” Once after a private concert the late Diana, Princess of Wales would come to see him to thank him for writing the song since she thought it was dedicated to her.

Another notable song from the 80’s is ‘Patricia The Stripper’, which he from time to time performed with an actual stripper on stage.He scores huge in Germany where all of his concerts are always sold out. This popularity lead to an invitation by the German chanceler to perform at a concert to celebrate the unification of East- and West Germany in 1990. He was the only non German artist performing that day which is a great honour.

He kept producing albums with A&M and in 1995 he was able to release ‘Beautifull Dreams’; a compilation of new and old work recorded in a classical style with a 32-piece orchestra. His 1999 album ‘Quiet Revolution’ was indeed a revolution because he’d started to perform with a band instead of an orchestra. More albums were released throughout the years 2000 containing other beautifull songs like ‘Lebanese Night’ and in 2004 he cut himself of from A&M releasing ‘The Road To Freedom’ on his own Ferryman Records label. Once more the album title referred to a new turn in his life and career.

Chris is well known as a singer but if you listen very carefully all of his albums and songs contain an actual story about different subject as life, death, mythology, love, war. You hear it very much in his early works as ‘Crusaders’ and the song I chose ‘Spanish Train’ but it is also heared on the 2006 album ‘The Storyman’. Telling stories has always been the base of his success and with this album he’s sticking to that. I have to hear any of his new songs yet (album Moonfleet released in 2010) but I guess it will be another pearl in his wide collection of albums.

Although ‘Lady in Red’ was inspired by his wife Diana and despite the three children they have together (his daughter Rosanna won the Miss World elections for Ireland in 2003 !) he did make one wrong turn in his life. In 1994 Chris De Burgh pleaded guilty to his wife having an affair with the 19 year old Irish nanny while his wife was recuperating in the hospital from a broken neck after a horse riding accident. His family eventually forgave him and he and his wife can be spotted at regular times at Anfield Road since hey’re both huge Liverpool FC fans.

If you listen to the song I chose you’ll notice it’s about the devil and God gambling high stakes for the souls of dead people. Another great story told by one of the best Storymen alive on earth. The gambling part links perfectly into the previous song so I’ll hope you can enjoy this beauty:

N°11 KENNY ROGERS - THE GAMBLER

"Oh my God; they killed Kenny" was one of the main one-liners appearing on South Park the series and that's were our next link lies. Since I play a game of poker myself from time to time I've known this song for quite some time. It contains a lot of truth when singing "There'll be time enough for counting when the dealin' is done". Real poker players don't count money at the table; they count stack sizes; and that's a whole different thing than thinking it's actually real money. It's about thinking about how to use your chips to add the other player's chips to yours. A little pokerwisdom from me to the world. I've chosen this video when he performed on the Muppet show in 1979 since it's so special because the muppets play their part and sing along with hin in the song. Today was the first time I heared this version of the song; I smiled and thought: "Hey this is the video I want to share". Enjoy.

It's a Kenny Rogers song and Kenny is an icon in country music. He won numerous prizes; Grammy's , lifetime achievement awards and so on. He's also very well know for his duets with Dottie West and Dolly Parton (Islands in the stream); both famous country singers as well. His solo career took a flight in 1975 when the single "Love Lifted Me" makes the top 20 in the billboards. The next single "Lucille" made his name in the buisiness when reaching his first ever number 1 position in the charts.

In 1978 this song was released and became instantly a huge succes followed by a television series by the same name in which he played the main part. Kenny also played different parts in different movies as well. Since the mid 80's his solo carreer got put a little bit on the side since he developed other interest like photography and writing. In the early 90's he opens a restaurant called Kenny Rogers Roasters; best compared to the Kentucky Fried Chicken restaurants. Ever since he's also a succesfull buisinessman.

Since singing has moved to the background a bit he only released 2 compilation albums (in 2001 and 2004) but rumours say that he'd release a new album later this year.

He also has a son, Kenny Rogers Jr. who's also a singer but as far as I can tell nothing beats the real stuff.

N°10 SOUTH PARK - BLAME CANADA

I definately wanted a South Park song into the big link and the chance to do so appeared sooner as expected. Morissette being Canadian she's also to blame for all that goes wrong in the South Park: Bigger Better & Uncut movie.

South Park is a simply animated tv show formed around main characters Stan, Kyle, Kenny and Eric. Four kids who live in South Park - Colorado and who manage to get in (and out) of the weirdest situations. The series are written and produced by Trey Parker and Matt Stone who also do most of the voices. The foul language and violance makes South Park made for, and appreciated by, adults mostly.

It started off in 1997 and recently Parker and Stone signed for a 15th serie to be made this year.

Here's for you one of the South Park beauties: Blame Canada ('coz it's not a real country anyway ;-)  )!!!

N°9 ALANIS MORISSETTE - 21 THINGS I WANT IN A LOVER

Since both Chris Rock (the 13th apostel) and Alanis Morissette (God) have a part in the movie Dogma both of them could be linked together.

Not everyone loves her music and actually it tookk me a while to catch the hype of her album Jagged Little Pill in 1995. But I've changed my mind about the complete album and I think that cd contains some really great songs, and I don't mean the obvious song Ironic since everyone knows that song.

Alanis is a Canadian (NEXT LINK - spoiler I know haha) singer songwriter with Hungarian blood. Her parents wanted to name het Alan if she was a boy so they found a female version of that name. Her first album Alanis has som catchy danspop sounds, not anything you would expect listening to her later albums. A bit ashamed of that period I guess since she'll never release that album again. Then again she was only 17 years old at the time being. Her second album wasn't as succesfull as her first so she decided to sign for Maverick, Madonna's private record label and she instantly became one of the most important artists for that label.

In 1995 she releases her first really succesfull album Jagged Little Pill which was full of selfconscious lyrics. This album made her win 5 Grammy awards in total. On a hiking trip through India she got inspired for a fourth even more succesfull album called Supposed Former Infatuation Junkie. Three more albums would follow with a bit happier music than her previous ones but these were a bit less succesfull then the two I named.

As mentioned above she was asked to play the God part in the movie Dogma (a must see movie by the way) and she also appears on the soundtrack of that same movie with a single called Still. Another must see movie is City Of Angels for which she wrote the song Uninvited. She also got a Golden Globe nomination for her soundtrack Wunderkind in the movie Chronicles of Narnia.

Since I don't really know her later albums I've chosen a song from Under Rug Swept, her 2002 album. Enjoy,

N°8 CHRIS ROCK – NO SEX IN THE CHAMPAGNE ROOM

Since the previous song is about a prostitute called Roxanne the next link was easy to make. It’s an advisory song for people who go out to clubs in the weekend but with the humour of the worldwide known stand-up comedian Chris Rock.

So Chris Rock isn’t a singer or a songwriter but he did deliver a fantastic humourous song which contains a great value of truth nowadays. It’s hard to tell a girls age. It’s tough not to get into trouble when you go dancing in a club or drinking in a pub. People get shot and killed everywhere for the stupidest things like “a smudged Puma”. The lyrics are funny but when you think about it they're also kinda true.

Enough about the song. Chris Rock is one of the fastest and foul mouthed stand-up comedians on earth. His four shows are known by the main public:

1996 Bring The Pain

Best Quote: I hate niggas! I hate em! I wish they'd let me join the Ku Klux Klan!

1999 Bigger And Blacker

Best Quote: You don't need no gun control. You know what you need? We need some bullet control. Man, we need to control the bullets, that's right. I think all bullets should cost $5000. $5000 for a bullet. You know why? 'Cause if a bullet costs $5000, there'd be no more innocent bystanders. … Every time someone gets shot, people will be like, "Damn, he must have did something. He put $50,000 worth of bullets in his ass!"

2004 Never Scared

Best Quote: You know the only thing you can do to stop your man from cheating? The only thing you can do … is be there. Where? There! Wherever he's thinking about fucking, that's it. Just be right there.

2008 Kill The Messenger

Best Quote: I think they should change the name of that show from Desperate Housewives...to Ungrateful Bitches!

He also performed in many many many many movies like Beverly Hills Cop II, CB4, Lethal Weapon 4, Bad Company, Dogma, and he’s the voice of Marty in the Madagascar movies.

Now listen very carefully to the lyrics and start training your loud laughters.