Celia Cruz was born on October 21, 1924, in the Santo Suarez neighborhood of Havana. Her singing talent was obvious even when she was young, but instead of pursuing a career in singing, she studied to be a teacher. This was because her father told her that he did not believe that singing was a worthwhile profession for a woman. She still went after a career in singing, after encouragement from her mother, teacher and aunt. Cruz first began singing in talent shows and doing recordings for radio stations, but neither were sold for money.
James recorded the version, which she was allowed to co-author, in 1954, and the song was released in early 1955 as "Dance with Me, Henry". Originally the name of the song was "Roll With Me, Henry" but was changed to avoid censorship due to the subtle title. In February of that year, the song reached number one on the Hot Rhythm & Blues Tracks chart. [10] Its success gave the group an opening spot on Little Richard's national
She later changed her name to Fanny Brice and got her first professional job in the chorus of The Talk of the Town but ironicely she got fired during rehearsals by the big current star George M. Cohen. Young Fanny was a strong fighter and didn't give up her dream of entertaining. She then finally landed a spot in The Trans-atlantic Burlesquers where she did an Irving Berlin song, "Sadie Salome, Go Home." She did this in a Yiddish dialect seeing that she looked the way she did. Although she was not Jewish, she quoted " In anything Jewish I ever did, I wasn't standing apart making fun.
Sonny and Cher first released an album under the name Caesar and Cleo. After a couple of years and singing backups for groups like The Righteous Brothers, Darlene loves, The Crystals and The Ronettes they recorded an album titled “Look At Us” with the hit song “I Got You Babe” witch reached number 1 on the billboard hot 100 in 1965. Later in 1965 Cher released her solo album called “All I Really Want To Do” which reached 16 on the billboard. In 1966 Cher released her second solo album called “The Sonny Side Of Cher” which did pretty good on the charts but later on that year she released her third album called “Cher” didn’t do so well on the charts. After records sales slowed up Cher tried her luck at filming but was unsuccessful at the time.
In 1977 she released Blue Lights in the Basement, which was one of the top selling albums of the year. This album featured a duet with Donny Hathaway, “The Closer I Get to You”, which reached number two on the pop charts. She followed that up with the album Roberta Flack featuring Donny Hathaway. Hathaway died before the album was released in 1980. Soon after he died she found a new partner in Peabo Bryson.
According to the European Jazz Network, Cruz "commands her realm with a down-to-earth dignity unmistakably vibrant in her wide smile and striking pose." One of 14 children, born in the small village of Barrio Santos Suarez, Havana, Cruz was drawn to music from an early age. Her first pair of shoes was a gift from a tourist for whom she sang. In addition to spending many evenings singing her younger siblings to sleep, Cruz sang in school productions and community gatherings. Taken to cabarets and nightclubs by an aunt, she was introduced to the world of professional music.
She was heavily influenced by no other than the late, great, “Lady of Song,” Ms. Ella Fitzgerald. Ella Fitzgerald was born on April 25, 1918, in Newport News, Virginia, but she spent her youth just outside New York City in Yonkers, New York, and received her musical education in public schools. During elementary school she began singing at her local church, the Bethany African Methodist Episcopal Church. At fifteen her mother died and she was cared for by her aunt in Harlem, a black neighborhood in New York that was rich with jazz music. When only sixteen, she received her first big break at the Apollo Theater in Harlem, when she won an amateur-night contest and impressed saxophonist-bandleader Benny
She wrote many songs and poetry, beginning in junior high. Fleming states, “It was when I started writing music rather than just performing it that I first began to develop a sense of who I was as a person” (2004, p. 14). She studied with Patricia Misslin at the Crane School of Music in Potsdam, New York. While at Potsdam, she fell in love with jazz music. She got a weekly engagement with a jazz trio.
Aaliyah was raised by her father, mother and brother Rashad Haughton in Detroit. At age 9 she appeared on "Star Search" (1983), the TV program and sang "My Funny Valentine", a song which her mother had sung years earlier. At age 11, she sang with Gladys Knight in a five-night stint in Las Vegas. In 1992, she began to work on her debut album with the help of singer R. Kelly. The album, "Age Ain't Nothing But A Number" was released in 1994 and received heavy praise.
Hiswife, the black vocalist Laura Duncan first, and him perform it at Madison Square Garden.Then the song was introduced to Billie Holiday who first performed it at Café Society in 1939. Billie Holiday was an American jazz singer and songwriter. When Barney Josephson, founder of the Café Society in Greenwich Village, heard of the song he went and introduced it to Billie. At that time she was recording for Columbia. She said that when she’s singing the song, it made her fearful of retaliation, but because its imagery reminded her of her father, she continued to sing it.