Cyrus Whitfield Bond, 1 June 1915, Enville, Oklahoma, USA, d. 12 June 1978, Burbank, California, USA. Born into a poor farming family, Bond taught himself to play ukelele and guitar and played at local dances In 1934 he moved to Oklahoma and worked on radio, appearing as Cyrus Whitfield, Johnny Whitfield and then Johnny Bond. In 1937, he worked with Jimmy Wakely and Scotty H
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Francesco Paolo LoVecchio, 30 March 1913, Chicago, Illinois, USA, d. 6 February 2007, San Diego, California, USA. Laine had been a chorister at the Immaculate Conception Church in his city’s Sicilian quarter before entering showbusiness proper on leaving school. For nearly a decade he travelled as a singing waiter, dancing instructor (with a victory in a 1932 dance mara
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Richard Edward Arnold, 15 May 1918, on a farm near Madisonville, Chester County, Tennessee, USA, d. 8 May 2008, Nashville, Tennessee, USA. Arnold’s father and mother played fiddle and guitar, respectively, and he learned guitar as a child. His father died on Eddy’s 11th birthday and he left school to work on the farm. By the end of the year the bank foreclosed, and
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Edwin Jack Fisher, 10 August 1928, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA. Fisher was a ‘bobby sox idol’, one of the most popular US singers of the 50s, with a strong, melodic voice. He sang with the bands of Buddy Morrow and Charlie Ventura at the age of 18, and his nickname was ‘Sonny Boy’ because of his affection for Al Jolson songs. In 1949 he gained nationw
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John Preston Courville, 18 August 1939, Port Arthur, Texas, USA. This pop ballad and rock singer first performed in the Lamar University (Beaumont, Texas) group the Shades, in 1957, and was brought to the attention of Mercury Records by disc jockey and singer, the Big Bopper (Jape Richardson). Among the tracks Richardson wrote and produced for him was the novelty ‘Runni
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Charles Eugene Patrick Boone, 1 June 1934, Jacksonville, Florida, USA. Boone sold more records during the late 50s than any other artist except Elvis Presley. From 1955 to date, only six artists (Presley, the Beatles, James Brown, Elton John, Rolling Stones and Stevie Wonder) are ranked above him in terms of total singles sales and their relative chart positions. Boone had a
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William John Clifton Haley, 6 July 1925, Highland Park, Michigan, USA, d. 9 February 1981, Harlingen, Texas, USA. Haley was one of the great pioneers of rock ‘n’ roll and was the first artist to take the new musical form to the world stage. His roots were in country music and he began his career as a yodelling cowboy. After playing in such country groups as the Dow
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Katherine LaVerne Starks, 21 July 1922, Dougherty, Oklahoma, USA. While she was still a child, Starr’s family moved to Dallas, Texas, where she made her professional debut on local radio before she had left school. In 1939 she was hired briefly by Glenn Miller when his regular singer, Marion Hutton, was sick. Starr made records with Miller, but was soon on the move. She
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Helen Fogel, 12 April 1917 or 1918, Atlantic City, New Jersey, USA, d. 11 July 1999, Los Angeles, California, USA. Forrest began singing as child and by her mid-teenage was appearing regularly on radio in New York City. Many of her appearances were on CBS, with whom she held a salaried job, and this led to her being heard by Artie Shaw who hired her in 1937. The other band s
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Martin David Robinson 26 September 1925, near Glendale, Arizona, USA, d. 8 December 1982, Nashville, Tennessee, USA. Robbins later maintained that his father hated him and that his early childhood was unhappy. Reports indicate that John Robinson (originally a Polish immigrant named Mazinski) suffered from a drink problem that led to him abusing his family before eventually l
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David Daniel Kaminski, 18 January 1913, Brooklyn, New York City, New York, USA, d. 3 March 1987, Los Angeles, California, USA. Kaye was an extraordinary entertainer and an apparently inexhaustible comedian, mimic and dancer who seemed to be able to twist his face and body into any shape he wanted. As a singer, he specialized in very fast double talk and tongue twisters, but
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