Musical Artist - Streisand, Barbra

Barbra Streisand is an American singer, actress, composer, screenwriter, director, and producer. She is one of the most successful entertainers of the twentieth century, with tens of millions of albums sold and numerous film and stage roles to her credit. Over the course of her career, she has released thirty-six studio albums, seven live albums, and fifteen soundtracks. She has released more than a hundred singles. Fifty-two of her albums reached gold status, and thirty-one have been certified as platinum. She has had fourteen multi-platinum albums, and is the only female performer to achieve that feat. She has had more number one albums than any other female artist, and has had a number one album in each of the last six decades - and is the only recording artist to accomplish that.

Streisand has had a long and prolific career on screen. She has been in several movies including Funny Girl, Hello Dolly, The Main Event, The Mirror Has Two Faces, Prince of Tides, A Star Is Born, The Way We Were, and Yentl. In many of these films, Streisand also directed and produced the movie in addition to appearing in it. For Yentl, Streisand also wrote the script of the movie.

Over the course of her career, Streisand has earned numerous honors for her work. She has won two Academy Awards, ten Grammy Awards, five Emmy Awards, and a special Tony Award, making her one of the few artists to achieve the distinction of being an "EGOT". She has also won an AFI Award, four Peabody Awards, nine Golden Globe Awards, and has been honored with both the presidential Medal of Freedom and Kennedy Center Honors.

Barbra has a website named Streisand. She can also be found on Facebook, YouTube, and the Internet Movie Database.

Musical Monday Selections:

12/17/18: Woman in Love

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Musical Artist - Salonga, Lea

You may not realize it, but it is likely that you have been surrounded by Lea Salonga's music for much of your life. Not only is she the original performer of the role of Eponine in the Broadway production of the musical Les Misérables, but she is also the singing voice of Princess Jasmine from Disney's Aladdin, and Mulan from Disney's Mulan movies. In addition to these roles, this Philippine-born actress has performed the lead role of Kim in the musical Miss Saigon, and has also appeared as Fantine in Les Misérables.

Salonga appeared in the 10^th Anniversary "Dream Cast" concert of Les Misérables as Eponine, and the 25^th Anniversary concert as Fantine. Salonga has a website named Lea Salonga, and can be found on Twitter and Facebook.

Musical Monday Selections:

None

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Musical Artist - Springsteen, Bruce

Bruce Springsteen is an American singer and songwriter whose lyrics generally focus on the concerns of the blue collar working class segment of society. He is nicknamed "the Boss", and in his native New Jersey he is treated as an almost deific figure. His most popular songs are probably Born to Run and Born in the U.S.A., but in my opinion, his better works are the quieter and more reflective pieces found deeper on his albums such as Nebraska, Downbound Train, My Hometown, and The River. On a personal note, when I was in college, my fraternity would always play Springsteen's song Rosalita at every party, which would draw every member onto the dance floor for an enormous semi-choreographed dance involving lots of jumping and stomping. The tradition pre-dated me, so I have no idea how or why it started.

Springsteen has an Official Website, and a Facebook page. There is also a very prominent fan run site dedicated to Springsteen named Backstreets.

Musical Monday Selections:

05/03/21: Dancing in the Dark
06/24/14: Downbound Train
04/13/15: Nebraska

09/05/16: The River

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Musical Artist - The Scorpions

The Scorpions are a hard rock band from Germany. Originally founded in 1965, they had their greatest success in the 1980s while packaged as a hair metal band releasing hits like Rock You Like a Hurricane, Winds of Change, and No One Like You. They didn't really fit the hair metal mold, but because that was what sold record albums, they were presented and sold that way.

The band is still touring, most recently on their "Final Sting" tour, which was originally announced as their last, a decision that was later rescinded. The band has an official web site titled the Official Website of the Scorpions.

Musical Monday Selections:

10/29/12: Rock You Like a Hurricane

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Musical Artist - Singana, Margaret

Born Margaret M'cingana, Margaret Singana was a South African singer known as "Lady Africa" to her countrymen. She got her start in the musical Sopono, and went on to have a singing career that spanned more than two decades as both a pop singer performing both solo and with The Symbols. She also carved out a career as a musical theater performer notably appearing in musicals such as Sikalo, The Warrior, and most importantly Ipi 'Ntombi in which she toured Australia, the United Kingdom, and the United States. During the 1970s he recorded hits such as Mama Tembu's Wedding, I Never Loved a Man the Way I Loved You, and Good Feelings.

Singana suffered ill health in the 1980s after a stroke in 1978, but recorded We Are Growing, the theme song to the Shaka Zulu miniseries in 1986, which reached number one in the Netherlands.

Musical Monday Selections:

05/25/15: We Are Growing

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Musical Artist - Spillane, Davy

Davy Spillane is an Irish musician who specializes in playing the uilleann pipes and low whistle. He was a founding member of the band Moving Hearts, and recorded four albums with them, but left the band in 1985 to pursue a solo career. As a solo artist, Spillane recorded eight albums as well as numerous collaborations. He is probably best know for his role in the musical Riverdance, in which he was a special guest soloist. Spillane also contributed to the soundtracks for movies such as Rob Roy, Gangs of New York, and Wuthering Heights. He has been nominated for a Grammy Award twice, winning once.

Spillane has a website named Davy Spillane, and he can also be found on Facebook.

Musical Monday Selections:

06/22/15: Caoineadh Cu Chulainn

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Musical Artist - The Specials

The Specials, also known as "The Special A.K.A." was an English ska band with punk influences that was most active between 1979 and 1981 although they were active through 1984 albeit with a substantial change in their lineup after 1981. The band scored two number one huts on the U.K. charts: Too Much Too Young as the title track to a five song EP, and Ghost Town, and another top ten hit with Free Nelson Mandela.

Originally formed in 1977 by Jerry Dammers, Tim Strickland, Lynval Golding, Silverton Hutchinson and Horace Panter, the band replaced Strickland was replaced with Terry Hall relatively quickly and added Neville Staple and Roddy Byers in 1978. Joe Strummer of the Clash saw the band and invited them to tour as the Clash's opening act. In 1979, Hutchinson was replaced by John Bradbury, after which the band had its relatively brief run of popular success. In 1981, Staples, Hall, and Golding left the band after which the membership was in a constant state of chaos with an almost endlessly rotating cast of members until 1984 when the band dissolved for good.

In 1993, the band reformed and has performed off and on ever since, with an ever fluctuating cast of members.

The band has a website named The Specials, and can also be found on Facebook.

Musical Monday Selections:

06/10/19: Ghost Town
05/14/18: The Special A.K.A. Live! [Too Much Too Young] (featuring Rico)

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Musical Artist - Symphony of Science

Symphony of Science is a musical project created by YouTube user melodysheep using autotune software to create songs about the beauty and power of science using snippets of dialogue from prominent scientists. Some people don't like the sound of autotuned voices, so they may want to steer clear of these offerings, but for those of us who don't mind it, these songs are a wonderful platform for some of the best advocates of science to become unintentional singers and extol the wonder, the mystery, and the passion of the scientific endeavor.

The project has a website titled Symphony of Science.

Musical Monday Selections:

07/16/12: The Greatest Show on Earth

07/02/12: We Are Star Dust

01/24/11: The Big Beginning
10/25/10: The Case for Mars
09/20/10: A Glorious Dawn
03/16/15: Ode to the Brain!
09/17/12: Our Biggest Challenge
01/06/14: Our Place in the Universe

08/25/14: Seize the Day (with Robin Williams)

09/27/10: The Unbroken Thread
11/01/10: A Wave of Reason
11/24/10: We Are All Connected

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Musical Artist - Straight No Chaser

Straight No Chaser is an a capella singing group first formed at Indiana University in 1996 as a student group made up of Kevin Carroll, Walter Chase, Jerome Collins, Patrick Hachey, Mike Itkoff, Charlie Mechling, Steve Morgan, Dan Ponce, Dave Roberts, and Randy Stine. As happens with most student singing groups, when the member graduated, they were replaced by new members, and Straight No Chaser probably would have been no more than another local university group with ever-changing membership had a video of their 1998 performance of a mixed-up and humorous version of The 12 Days of Christmas (based upon an earlier adaptation by Richard C. Gregory) not been uploaded to YouTube in 2006. The video went viral and the original members of the group reunited and eventually obtained a recording contract.

The band has a website named Straight No Chaser, and a Facebook fan page.

Musical Monday Selections:

12/16/13: 12 Days

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Musical Artist - Stary Olsa

Named after a stream in Belarus, Stary Olsa is a Belrusian band that uses medieval instruments to recreate the music of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, as well as to perform clever covers of modern popular songs. The band was created in 1999, and currently has six members: Its founder Zmicier Sasnoŭski, plus Maryja Šaryj, Alieś Čumakoŭ, Illia Kublicki, Illia Kublicki, and Aliaksiej Vojciech. Former members include Kaciaryna Radzivilava, Kaciaryna Pinčuk, Aksana Kascian, and Andrej Apanovič. The band has recorded eleven albums thus far. Their twelfth album will feature medieval renditions of classic rock songs.

Stary Olsa has an official website named Stary Olsa, and can also be found on Facebook and YouTube.

Musical Monday Selections:

03/21/16: Another Brick in the Wall (Part II)

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Musical Artist - The Spinners

The Spinners, also known as the Detroit Spinners or the Motown Spinners, are an American rhythm and blues band most famous for their hits released in the 1970s and early 1980s. Originally formed as the Domingoes in 1954, the group underwent some lineup changes and renamed themselves the Spinners in 1961. At that time the group consisted of George Dixon, Henry Fambrough, Billy Henderson, Pervis Jackson, and Bobby Smith. Dixon was replaced by 1963 by Edgar Edwards, after which the lineup remain intact until 1967 when Edwards was replaced by G.C. Cameron. It should be no surprise that the reason for these frequent roster changes was rooted in the somewhat indifferent success enjoyed by the group. Although they released several singles through the 1960s, they only had modest impact on the charts, and wound up acting as support for other more prominent groups, serving as road managers, chauffeurs, and shipping clerks.

In 1972, after a decade with Motown, the Spinners changed labels and signed with Atlantic Records, replacing Cameron with Philippé Wynne in the process. After the move, the group became one of the most successful soul acts of the 1970s, with a string of hits that included I'll Be Around, Could It Be I'm Falling in Love, One of a Kind (Love Affair), Ghetto Child, Then Came You (in collaboration with Dionne Warwick), They Just Can't Stop It (The Games People Play), and The Rubberband Man. The band recorded two songs for the soundtrack of the movie The Fish That Saved Pittsburgh, as well as appearing in the movie itself. The band had two more hits in 1980 with Working My Way Back to You - Forgive Me, Girl and Cupid - I've Loved You for a Long Time, but that marked the end of the band's major chart successes.

In subsequent years the band has experienced numerous roster changes, with Henry Famborough being the only remaining original member with the band, but they never broke up. The Spinners have continued to tour continuously to the present day, and show no signs of stopping any time soon.

They can be found on Facebook as the Mighty Spinners.

Musical Monday Selections:

07/16/18: Working My Way Back to You - Forgive Me Girl

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Musical Artist - S.O.S. Band

The S.O.S. Band is an American R&B band best known for hits such as The Finest, Just Be Good To Me, Just The Way You Like It, On The Rise, Take Your Time (Do It Right), and Tell Me If You Still Care. Originally formed in 1977 by Jason Bryant, Mary Davis, Billy Ellis, James Earl Jones III, Willie Killebrew, John Alexander Simpson, and Bruno Speight, the band first scored success when they collaborated with producer and songwriter Sigidi Abdullah. Between 1980 and 1986, the band released six studio albums, resulting in thirteen top forty R&B hits.

Mary Davy left the group in 1986 to pursue a solo career, but the band soldiered on, producing two more studio albums and scoring three more top forty R&B hits. After a couple more lineup changes and the death of founding member Billy Ellis in 1989, the band more or less called it quits in 1991. Mary Davy reunited with former member Abdul Ra'oof in 1994 and they reformed the group with a cadre of new musicians and the two have been touring and performing with the reconstructed S.O.S. Band ever since.

The group has a website named The S.O.S. Band. They can also be found on Facebook, YouTube, and Instagram.

Musical Monday Selections:

10/22/18: Take Your Time (Do It Right)

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Musical Artist - Spinney, Caroll

Carroll Spinney is a veteran Muppeteer best known for performing the Sesame Street characters Big Bird and Oscar the Grouch. By the time he joined forces with Jim Henson, Spinney was already a seasoned performer. After a stint in the U.S. Air Force, during which he wrote and illustrated the comic strip Harvey and animated a series of cartoons called Crazy Crayon, Spinney worked as a puppeteer, first creating the show Rascal Rabbit and later performing as part of the cast of The Judy and Goggle Show and Bozo's Big Top. Eventually, he crossed paths with Jim Henson, and beginning in 1969, he was a Muppeteer.

Spinney's most prominent characters are Oscar the Grouch and Big Bird, but he has performed a number of other characters, including Granny Bird and Bruno the Trash Man. He was also one of the first Muppeteers to perform Elmo, although at the time the Elmo character was not yet a named character. For his work on Sesame Street, Spinney has been given several Daytime Emmy Awards, and a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, among several other honors.

Musical Monday Selections:

05/13/13: It's Not Easy Being Green

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Musical Artist - Redbone

Redbone is a Native American rock band originally founded in 1969 by brothers Pat Vasquez-Vegas and Lolly Vasquez-Vegas. Supporting the two brothers was a rotating group of other musicians, all of Native American or Mexican descent including Tony Bellamy, Peter DePoe, Arturo Perez, and Butch Rillera. Redbone had their greatest success in 1974 with the number one hit single Come and Get Your Love, but also had a fair amount of success with songs such as Alcatraz, The Witch Queen of New Orleans, and Wovoka.

Although the band never officially broke up, it has only engaged in extremely limited activity since 1977, and recent years have seen the passing of Tony Bellamy, Lolly Vasquez-Vegas, and Arturo Perez. In 2014, the song Redbone was placed on the soundtrack to the movie Guardians of the Galaxy as part of Peter Quill's "Awesome Mix". The band has an official website named Redbone.

Musical Monday Selections:

05/09/16: Come and Get Your Love

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Musical Artist - REO Speedwagon

REO Speedwagon in 1988

REO Speedwagon is an American band originally formed in 1967 in Champaign, Illinois by Neal Doughty and Alan Gratzer. The two were joined by Joe Matt and Mike Blair to form REO Speedwagon, taking the name from a 1915 truck designed by Ransom Eli Olds. Within a few years Matt and Blair were replaced and singer Terry Luttrell joined the band. The group was signed to a recording contract in 1971 and released their debut album REO Speedwagon that same year.

Over the next few years, the band toured the Midwest and switched lead singers - featuring three different lead singers on their first three albums. The band eventually settled on Kevin Cronin as their lead vocalist, but not before he had recorded an album =with them, left the band while they recorded another album with a different singer, and returned only after their first choice for a lead singer declined due to his decision to become a born-again Christian. The band's biggest hit in this time period was 1973's Ridin' the Storm Out with Michael Bryan Murphy on lead vocal.

Bassist Greg Philbin left the band in 1977 and was replaced by Bruce Hall. In 1978, the band released the album You Can Tune a Piano, but You Can't Tuna Fish, which became their first album to reach the top forty powered by the hit singles Roll With the Changes and Time for Me to Fly. In 1980, the band released Hi Infidelity containing the singles Keep On Lovin' You, Take It on the Run, and Don't Let Him Go, launching the band to superstar headliner status that would last through most of the 1980s.

The band released the indifferently successful Good Trouble in 1982, but followed that up with Wheels Are Turnin' in 1984 that included hits like Can't Fight This Feeling, I Do' Wanna Know, and One Lonely Night. In 1987, REO Speedwagon released Life as We Know It with the minor hits That Ain't Love and In My Dreams, but this was something of a swan song for the group. By the 1990s members had begun leaving the group to embark on other projects and the band began the slow process of evolving into a nostalgia act.

Over the years, the band released sixteen studio albums, producing thirteen Billboard top forty hits, including two number one singles. Though they have not had a single reach the charts since 1990, the band continues to tour on a regular basis and shows no sign of slowing down despite several lineup changes.

The band has an official website named REO Speedwagon. They also have a Facebook page.

Musical Monday Selections:

11/17/25: I Can't Fight This Feeling
03/18/19: Keep On Lovin' You

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