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Category: 1950s
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Hibari Misora
About Hibari Misora was a Japanese singer, actress and cultural icon. She received a Medal of Honor for her contributions to music and for improving the welfare of the public, and was the first woman to receive the People’s Honour Award, which was conferred posthumously for giving the public hope and encouragement after World War…
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Edith Piaf
About Édith Piaf was a French singer best known for performing songs in the cabaret and modern chanson genres. She is widely regarded as France’s greatest popular singer and one of the most celebrated performers of the 20th century. Albums/Songs: 25e anniversaire, Volume 2 De L’Accordéoniste à Milord Chansons parisiennes Disque d’or Piaf Tonight La…
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Sonny Rollins
About Walter Theodore “Sonny” Rollins is an American former jazz tenor saxophonist who is widely recognized as one of the most important and influential jazz musicians. In a seven-decade career, he has recorded over sixty albums as a leader. A number of his compositions, including “St. Thomas”, “Oleo”, “Doxy”, and “Airegin”, have become jazz standards.…
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Johnny Horton
About John LaGale Horton was an American country, honky tonk and rockabilly musician during the 1950s. He is best known for a series of history-inspired narrative country saga songs that became international hits. His 1959 single “The Battle of New Orleans” was awarded the 1960 Grammy Award for Best Country & Western Recording. The song…
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Eartha Kitt
About Eartha Mae Kitt was an American singer and actress known for her highly distinctive singing style and her 1953 recordings of “C’est si bon” and the Christmas novelty song “Santa Baby”. Albums/Songs: Glamour ‘Miss Kitt,’ to You Down to Eartha With Sergio Mendes and Brazil ’66 Bad but Beautiful St. Louis Blues I Don’t…
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Ruth Brown
About Ruth Alston Brown was an American singer-songwriter and actress, sometimes referred to as the “Queen of R&B”. She was noted for bringing a pop music style to R&B music in a series of hit songs for Atlantic Records in the 1950s, such as “So Long”, “Teardrops from My Eyes” and “(Mama) He Treats Your…
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John Lee Hooker
About John Lee Hooker was an American blues singer, songwriter, and guitarist. The son of a sharecropper, he rose to prominence performing an electric guitar-style adaptation of Delta blues that he developed in Detroit. Hooker often incorporated other elements, including talking blues and early North Mississippi hill country blues. He developed his own driving-rhythm boogie…
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Eddy Arnold
About Richard Edward Arnold was an American country music singer. He was a Nashville sound innovator of the late 1950s, and scored 147 songs on the Billboard country music charts, second only to George Jones. He sold more than 85 million records. A member of the Grand Ole Opry and the Country Music Hall of…
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Big Joe Turner
About Joseph Vernon “Big Joe” Turner Jr. was an American blues shouter from Kansas City, Missouri. According to songwriter Doc Pomus, “Rock and roll would have never happened without him”. Turner’s greatest fame was due to his rock and roll recordings in the 1950s, particularly “Shake, Rattle and Roll”, but his career as a performer…
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Big Mama Thornton
About Willie Mae “Big Mama” Thornton, was an American singer and songwriter of the blues and R&B. Albums/Songs: Big Mama Thornton and the Chicago Blues Band They Called Me Big Mama Big Mama Swing Big Mama the Queen at Monterey Partnership Blues The Essential Recordings Hound Dog: The Peacock Recordings In Europe Big Mama Thornton…