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Fuse Network to Broadcast 2011 Rock & Roll Hall of Fame Ceremony Tonight
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Dr. John: Malcolm John “Mac” Rebennack, Jr. (born November 21, 1940), better known by the stage name Dr. John (also Dr. John Creaux), is an American singer/songwriter, pianist and guitarist, whose music combines blues, pop, jazz as well as Zydeco, boogie woogie and rock and roll. He is local to New Orleans, Louisiana Active as a session musician since the late 1950s, he came to wider prominence in the early 1970s with a wildly theatrical stage show inspired by medicine shows, Mardi Gras costumes and voodoo ceremonies. Rebennack has recorded over 20 albums and in 1973 scored a top-20 hit with the jaunty funk-flavored “Right Place, Wrong Time,” still perhaps his best-known song. The winner of five Grammy awards, Rebennack was inducted to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame by singer John Legend on Monday, March 14, 2011. In a conversation that I had with Fats Domino last night, I asked him about his feelings about Dr. John being inducted into the R&RHOF. “I’m very happy that Dr. John has been inducted,” Fats said. ” I consider him a friend, a great musician and feel that he deserves this honor.” The Alice Cooper Band: Formed in the 1960s with Vincent Furnier on vocals, the Alice Cooper Band went through a few names – The Earwigs, The Spiders, The Nazz – before settling on Alice Cooper. According to rock legend (perpetrated through crafty press releases), Furnier was the reincarnation of a 17th century witch named Alice Cooper, and a star was born. The forefathers of the “shock rock” movement, the band blended androgynous looks, heavy music and onstage theatrics, scoring their first hit, “I’m Eighteen,” in 1970. Successful concept albums, catchy hit singles, inventive music video projects, blockbuster tours and an unforgettable front man established the group in the popular consciousness, and helped inspire bands from White Zombie to Marilyn Manson and beyond. Darlene Love: an American popular music singer and actress. She gained prominence in the 1960s as one of the most powerful singers of the girl group era, as immortalized on “He’s A Rebel,” a #1 American single in 1962. Neil Diamond: an American singer-songwriter. As a successful pop music performer, Diamond scored a number of hits worldwide in the 1960s, 1970s, and 1980s. According to David Wild, common themes in Diamond’s songs are “a deep sense of isolation and an equal desire for connection. A yearning for home – and at the same time, the allure of greater freedom. The good, the bad and the ugly about a crazy little thing called love.” Diamond was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 1984, and in 2000 he received the Sammy Cahn Lifetime Achievement Award. Tom Waits: an American singer-songwriter, composer, and actor. Waits has a distinctive voice, described by critic Daniel Durchholz as sounding “like it was soaked in a vat of bourbon, left hanging in the smokehouse for a few months, and then taken outside and run over with a car.” With this trademark growl, his incorporation of pre-rock music styles such as blues, jazz, and vaudeville, and experimental tendencies verging on industrial music, Waits has built up a distinctive musical persona. He has worked as a composer for movies and musical plays and as a supporting actor in films, including Down By Law and Bram Stoker’s Dracula. He was nominated for an Academy Award for his soundtrack work on One from the Heart. Leon Russell: an American musician and songwriter, who has recorded as a session musician, sideman, and maintained a solo career in music. Born in Lawton, Oklahoma, Russell attended Will Rogers High School in Tulsa, Oklahoma. At this time he was already performing at Tulsa nightclubs. He became a session musician, becoming a keyboardist who has worked with many notable musicians since the 1960s. By the late 1960s, Russell diversified, first to writing songs, and then working his way from gigs as a sideman to joining bands as a full member. Eventually, he began solo recording, although he never ended all his previous roles within the music industry. Portions of this article were quoted from Wikipedia.]]]]> ]]>
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