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Yahoo
2 days ago
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Renée Elise Goldsberry Is Ready to Share Her Debut Album — and Her Recurring ‘Hamilton' Nightmares
In 2013, Renée Elise Goldsberry had everything she wanted. She was finally a mother with two young children and a successful theater and television career. She was content. Then she got a call to audition for Lin-Manuel Miranda's new project. At first, she said no. The project, it turned out, was Hamilton. 'I'm not an idiot. I was a huge fan of Lin-Manuel Miranda from In the Heights. I knew the genius. I just didn't think that they would cast me for the show,' Goldsberry tells Rolling Stone. Eventually, after turning down the show several times, she capitulated and accepted the role of the fiery Angelica Schuyler. With her as one of its stars, Hamilton would go on to be the most sought-after theater ticket in town, launching the ultimate rap battle-history lesson straight into the cultural zeitgeist. More from Rolling Stone Original 'Hamilton' Cast Will Reunite for 10th Anniversary at 2025 Tony Awards Leslie Odom Jr. Returning to 'Hamilton' on Broadway for Show's 10-Year Anniversary Amy Winehouse, Elton John, and 'Hamilton' Added to Library of Congress' National Recording Registry '[Casting director] Bernie Telsey was really excited: 'Renée Goldsberry's coming in to audition!' It was this feeling of, 'We found her,' Miranda remembers. Goldsberry's co-star Leslie Odom Jr., who played Aaron Burr and will be returning to Hamilton this fall, adds, 'The truly great performers, their art is about how much they're willing to reveal. I just would trust her with anything. I feel that way about her on stage. It doesn't stop once we take our bows.' After portraying Angelica for three years (including a 13-month Broadway run and later a Disney+ adaptation), Goldsberry had been keeping busy performing solo concerts and landing roles on television shows like She-Hulk and Girls5Eva. Now, Goldsberry has embarked on a completely new adventure: She's releasing her first solo album, Who I Really Am on June 6, packing the project with 13 tracks that runs the gamut from love to heartbreak and everything in between. 'I've been writing music for a long time. I dreamt of being in Lilith Fair many decades ago,' she says. 'One of the greatest ways to be a storyteller is to be a singer-songwriter. ' 'She's such a chameleon, her voice can do a million things,' her longtime friend and Girls5Eva co-star Sara Bareilles explains. 'To this day, I can't listen to 'Satisfied' without it bringing tears to my eyes. There's so much truth. That's what makes Renée a great artist.'A version of 'Satisfied' actually makes its way onto the new project, with Goldsberry singing all the parts herself. 'Satisfied' is a famously tricky song,' Miranda says. 'Some people make a meal out of how fast they're rapping. Renée does the opposite. She thinks that fast. She's insane. It's a song at the speed of her brain, which is why she's Angelica.' In an interview with Rolling Stone, Goldsberry shares more of the stories behind Who I Really Am and explains why she waited until now to release the project now. She also looks back at Hamilton as it hits its 10th anniversary, describes how the musical haunts her to this day, and reveals whether she would ever return to the show. Why was this the right time for your debut album?I've had some wonderful success in the theater and in television, which crossed into the world of pop and R&B music, genre-defying, age-defying pop-rap. In Covid, everyone was home, Hamilton had a big movie premiere. I have this blessing of a platform. There are a group of people that care about what I sing. It was the right time to do what I love very much, for people that have shown me so much love. How did you come up with the title ?I was visiting my father in church in Michigan. The pastor got up to introduce a special guest they had there. I turned around like, 'Who? I wonder who it is,' as he was reading my entire biography. He said my name, I was shocked. How did I not recognize myself? I realized it's because it had excluded every challenge I'd been through. I had had a couple of really emotionally painful miscarriages that were quite public, and somehow, this introduction of me, just excluded that, because that's what you do. I thought, 'Wow, what a disservice we do to each other when we reduce our identity to shows and awards.' This song is two sides of the coin. If you flip the coin, that's where the loss is, where the mistakes are, where the pain is. And it became the name of the album. Do you remember when you first wrote your very first song?I was in high school, fell in love with a beautiful boy. He graduated, went to Dartmouth, and left me for my senior year. I walked around the campus of Cranbrook in Michigan so sad, so heartbroken, so abandoned, left with all of these 17-year-old emotions. The song is called, brace yourself, 'Left Alone.' I hope you do a 2026 remake of 'Left Alone.'There's a song called 'Love Returned,' about my most soap opera, dramatic, ridiculously kind of crazy running through the rain, heartbreak, night in college. Yes, I'm every cliché. Is there a special backstory to any of the songs?'Twinkle' is written for my daughter. I have songs that require the support of powerful women, the power of sisterhood. It's every nursery rhyme, but reclaimed specifically for my Black daughter. I wrote 'You Can Do Anything,' for my son, especially the line, 'If you knew that you would win, how would you play?' Without the idea that you might lose, you'll do it differently. Were there any other album titles you considered?'Friendly fire,' is in the song 'I Met Someone.' It's about breaking someone's heart. I had to tell the person I was seeing, 'I met someone.' I met my husband. Finding the strength to say those three words and being the villain in the story. Sometimes it's the best thing you can be in someone's life, because it frees them to have a person that actually loves them in the way they deserve. Is this album your villain origin story?Possible! After I wrote that song with Paul Duncan, Sara Bareilles, my very good friend slash 'Grammy Award-winning superstar.' She actually might be the best singer/songwriter ever. I told her, 'I'm doing my own album.' She said, 'Oh, I have a song, I think you'd sing it great,' and she just gave it to me. 'Don't Want to Love You,' is the perspective of the person who was hurt. I was a stalker fan first. I first met her backstage at Hamilton. When I got the offer to be in Tina Fey and Meredith Scardino's Girls5Eva, Sara was the only person attached. I thought, 'Ooh, if I do the show, I'll be friends with Sara Bareilles.' Who were some of your musical inspirations for this album?My favorite voice in the whole wide world: Sarah Vaughan. She never wanted to be called a jazz singer. She considered herself just a singer, which also fits very well for me. It's a challenge for me to find one genre that defines me. As a theater singer, we sing everything. I'm in love with the sound of Luther Vandross and James Taylor's voices. Anita Baker, Whitney Houston, Aretha Franklin, Chaka Khan, Eva Cassidy, and Joni Mitchell. Joni! Both Sides Now! 's about to hit 10 years. Let's go back in time. We had dinner after your audition and you said, 'I don't know, I think this could be big. The music is so good.' Turns out, you were right.I turned the audition down several times. It was for the workshop. I'm not an idiot. I was a huge fan of Lin-Manuel Miranda from In the Heights. I knew the genius. I just didn't think that they would cast me for the show. I didn't see myself as a Nicki Minaj type. I didn't recognize myself that way. And most importantly, I had just brought my daughter home. My son was here. My family was complete, and it was hard to get. Then, I got this email, 'Would you come audition for this Hamilton mixtape?' I thought, 'They're never gonna give me that job.' So, no. How many times did you turn it down?Two or three times. The producers said, 'We love her. We just need to know if she can rap. Can she just listen to the song?' I listened. I thought, 'Fuck.' I had only one night to learn it. I was going to be in a room with my heroes, Tommy Kail, Lin-Manuel Miranda, Alex Lacamoire, and Jeffrey Seller. And I can't even understand what he's saying on this demo I get. I'm like, 'What? What is he even saying?' I auditioned. They gave me the job. You played hard to get with .I mean I said, 'Yes,' right away! You do a remake of on this album. Did you get the Lin stamp of approval?Lin kicked off his series to showcase Hamilton cast members' work at his theater in Washington Heights, with my documentary, Satisfied. He asked me to sing. I said, 'Well, this is a perfect time for me to let you know that I have this song. Not to replace the irreplaceable! But I'm always singing it by myself!' He replied, 'You have never once asked me to sing with you!' I sent it. He listened and wrote back, 'I love it, let's do it together!' Phillipa Soo sang with us. I said, 'I want to release it as a single.' And he said, 'I'm honored.' Who came to see you in that excited you the most?The people that didn't come is the shorter list. I got to do the show for Prince, Beyoncé, Barack and Michelle Obama. One night, I saw a letter from James Taylor saying, 'Thank you. I had a wonderful time at the show.' I started hyperventilating, 'James Taylor was here?!' My best performances are always when I don't know that anyone is there. I didn't want to be thinking the whole time, 'Oh my God, Beyoncé!' It was scary every single night. What did you learn from working with Lin?Lin and I are opposites. We're both perfectionists. Most perfectionists think they're never good enough. Lin has this wonderful combination of being a perfectionist, but also, he's very 'Show and Tell.' He doesn't have to be done. He'll never stop working. The first time he performed Hamilton at the White House, he did Alexander Hamilton, a rap that no one's ever heard. He's a perfectionist that's never afraid to show his work. It's a genius combination. What was it like working with Daveed Diggs, Leslie Odom, Jr., Phillipa, and Jonathan Groff?In my documentary and social media, you'll see me with every person you just mentioned, except Jonathan Groff. There's a reason why. It's all inappropriate. I can't put it anywhere. He's fine with it. He doesn't care. I can't release the Jonathan Groff footage. One of the greatest gifts, even 10 years later, is this whole family and watching the world discover them. If came out today, do you think it would be received differently?Absolutely, it would be. Not quite sure how. Would it have more potential to heal because the divide feels so great? What's beautiful about Hamilton because of the rap battles, both sides claimed Hamilton. Hopefully, it would be a bridge. That's definitely what we need. It was born in the Obama era. We thought that era was forever. Eight year olds come up to me all the time, knowing the material better than I do, and they were not alive when it came out. Would you ever go back to ? I've never thought of it ever as an option. It's also my recurring nightmare. I have dreams I'm in costume. It's almost time for me to go, 'Angelica!' I can't remember any of it. They start calling old Nalas for The Lion King. I'm on stage. There's no rehearsal, they assume I know it. I do not. When I heard Leslie was going back to the show, I was shocked. But what a gift to all of us. If there was a reason that it would be a win for everybody again, sure I'd do it. The hardest thing about doing the show is singing, 'Satisfied.' I used to say, kind of metaphorically [pretends to smoke a cigarette] after the show, 'I'm going to write an autobiography, and it's going to be called After Satisfied,' because I was so stressed out until after that song. So, I could do it, I would do it, but they don't need me! You've created a soundtrack to people's lives from joy to heartbreak to to love and all the messy, beautiful stuff in between. Your album's called, 'Who I Really Am?' So, who are you, really?Oof, that's hard. I'm an actor, I'm a singer, I'm a storyteller, I'm a mother, I'm a wife, I'm a friend, I'm a sister, I'm a daughter — A villain…I'm a villain. Who am I? Me. I wrote a whole ass song about it, it's track one. Best of Rolling Stone The 50 Greatest Eminem Songs All 274 of Taylor Swift's Songs, Ranked The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time
Boston Globe
25-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Boston Globe
Michael Roemer, maker of acclaimed but little-seen films, dies at 97
His career as a director began when NBC gave him the opportunity to make 'Cortile Cascino,' a 46-minute documentary about slum life in Palermo, Sicily, that he made with Robert M. Young. It was also the start of a pattern in which his films would all but disappear for decades at a time. Get Starting Point A guide through the most important stories of the morning, delivered Monday through Friday. Enter Email Sign Up 'Cortile Cascino' depicted a Sicilian life so grim that NBC executives balked at putting it on the air. It did not reappear until it was shown at the Sundance Film Festival in 1993. Advertisement Long delay also befell 'Nothing but a Man,' directed by Mr. Roemer and written by him and Young, a frequent collaborator. With Ivan Dixon and Abbey Lincoln in central roles, it tells the story of a Black railroad worker who is married to a preacher's daughter and who struggles to maintain his dignity in the segregated Alabama of the early 1960s. Advertisement Mr. Roemer and Young traveled through the South interviewing dozens of Black people about segregation's impact. For the actual shooting, however, they used locations in New Jersey, fearing hostility from Alabama authorities. The movie had a brief theatrical run when it was released in 1964. Many distributors, Mr. Roemer said in a 2024 interview for this obituary, refused to book it in theaters with principally Black audiences. Soon enough, 'Nothing but a Man' was gone. It wasn't until 1993 that it was rereleased, this time to wide acclaim. A year later, it was added to the Library of Congress' National Film Registry. Julius Harris (left) and Ivan Dixon in "Nothing But a Man" (1964), directed by Mr. Roemer. Boston Globe Photo Archive In 1969, Mr. Roemer wrote and directed 'The Plot Against Harry,' a comedy about a small-time numbers racketeer (played by Martin Priest) who goes to prison and eventually decides to change his ways and become an upstanding fellow. The only problem with the film was that audiences at private screenings did not laugh. Two decades later, Mr. Roemer decided to make videotape copies of the film for his children. This time, a technician working on the transfer to tape kept laughing as he watched, and the director decided that maybe he had something after all. 'The Plot Against Harry' enjoyed a new life, a theater run and praise. It was nominated for six Independent Spirit Awards. In 1990, New York Times film critic Janet Maslin called it 'a funny, sharply drawn and appealingly modest film.' Film critic J. Hoberman described Mr. Roemer in a 2024 interview as 'an empathetic director of actors and an unsentimental humanist, one of the few American filmmakers who shares those qualities with Jean Renoir.' Advertisement Other works by Mr. Roemer included 'Faces of Israel,' a short 1967 documentary; 'Dying,' a 1976 documentary about people near the end of life; and 'Vengeance Is Mine' (1984), a scripted film about mothers and daughters, originally titled 'Haunted,' starring Brooke Adams and Trish Van Devere. In 2022, Wesley Morris of the Times called 'Vengeance Is Mine' 'a masterpiece of direction, nothing too flashy but everything true.' Despite being routinely praised by film critics and scholars, Mr. Roemer was well aware that appreciation by a much broader audience eluded him. 'I spent the last 40 years of my life writing scripts not made into movies,' he said in 2024, with a laugh. 'After a while, you kind of take a certain pride in not having been a success. I'm simply not a commercial filmmaker.' Indeed, he said, his most successful work in terms of dollars was 'A Touch of the Times,' an hourlong silent film he made at Harvard. A fantasy about kite-flying, it ran at a movie house in Cambridge and earned well more in ticket sales than the $2,300 he had spent making it. 'If I could have made popular films, I would have,' Mr. Roemer told British newspaper The Guardian in 2023. 'But I believe in something. If I betray it, then I destroy myself.' Michael Roemer was born in Berlin on Jan. 1, 1928, into a family whose shoe business provided a comfortable life. His parents, Gerhardt and Paula (Ettinger) Roemer, divorced when he was an infant, leaving him to be reared mostly by a governess (whom he said he found terrifying). Early on, he said, he came to appreciate life's 'unpredictability.' Advertisement After moving to England with his younger sister, Marion, in the rescue effort known in German as the Kindertransport, he attended a school whose students were mainly Jewish refugees like him. Once in the United States, he went to Harvard on a scholarship, graduating in 1949 with a bachelor's degree in English. Six years after coming to America, he was reunited with his mother, and a few years after that, he met his father, who had begun a new life in England. In 1953, the young filmmaker married Barbara Balze, a teacher. She died in 2007. In addition to his daughter, he leaves two sons -- Dr. David Roemer and Jonathan Roemer -- and two grandsons. Soon after college, Mr. Roemer began an eight-year turn as a film editor and production manager for various companies. He then wrote and directed dozens of educational films for the Ford Foundation. Starting in 1966, he taught film theory and practice at Yale University, a professorship that lasted until he retired in 2017. 'I was 89 then,' he said. 'I don't think they realized how old I was.' In a sense, he said in 2024, 'nothing happened in my life the way it was supposed to.' His films, though praised, were not slam-bang successes. But failure, he said, reveals character. 'The truth is, failure can be a very honorable thing,' he told The Washington Post in 1990. 'It's not that you have a failure. It's what you do with it.' This article originally appeared in
CBS News
09-04-2025
- Entertainment
- CBS News
2025 National Recording Registry additions: Elton John, Celine Dion, Amy Winehouse and "Hamilton"
Elton John's "Goodbye Yellow Brick Road," Celine Dion's "My Heart Will Go On," Amy Winehouse's "Back to Black," albums by Miles Davis and Steve Miller Band, and Lin-Manuel Miranda's revolutionary musical "Hamilton" are just some of the latest recordings to be added to the Library of Congress' National Recording Registry , to be preserved for future generations. On Wednesday the Library announced 25 audio recordings that are being inducted to the Registry. This year's additions, representative of America's artistic, cultural and historic heritage, encompass a vast range of genres, from jazz, rock, pop, folk, country, Latin, Broadway and rap, to radio, spoken word, and comedy. Also selected this year: Helen Reddy's anthem "I Am Woman"; the debut albums from the rock band Chicago and singer-songwriter Tracy Chapman; "Sweet Georgia Brown" by Brother Bones & His Shadows; "Happy Trails" by singing cowboy Roy Rogers and Dale Evans; "The Kӧln Concert," a landmark recording by jazz pianist Keith Jarrett; "My Life," a heartbreaking work of musical autobiography by Mary J. Blige; music from the sandbox game Minecraft; and Don Rickles' standup comedy album, "Hello Dummy!" The oldest of this year's entries is the Hawaiian Quintette's recording of "Aloha 'Oe," dating from 1913. One iconic addition is barely six seconds long: Brian Eno's chime heard when booting up Windows 95. The recordings added this year bring the number of titles on the Registry to 675 – just a portion of Library of Congress' recorded sound collection of nearly four million items. Robbin Ahrold, chair of the National Recording Preservation Board, called this year's additions "an honor roll of superb American popular music from the wide-ranging repertoire of our great nation, from Hawaii to Nashville, from iconic jazz tracks to smash Broadway musicals, from Latin superstars to global pop sensations – a parade of indelible recordings spanning more than a century." More than 2,600 recordings were nominated by the public this year, with the album "Chicago Transit Authority" topping the list. Read about this year's 25 additions to the Library of Congress' National Recording Registry and listen to audio samples below — and find out how you can nominate titles to be added to the Registry. 2025 National Recording Registry additions (in alphabetical order): The Hawaiian folk song "Aloha 'Oe," penned by Princess Liliʻuokalani in the late 19th century, had already been recorded a few times on wax cylinders when the Victor Talking Machine Company recorded the Hawaiian Quintette on a 78 rpm disc in New York. PLAY: "Aloha 'Oe" by the Hawaiian Quintette (Digital Archives of Hawaii) The talent of British blues singer Amy Winehouse (1983-2011) was clearly demonstrated in her two studio albums, including the 2006 "Back to Black," which topped charts around the world. Raucous and funny, with a brassy and soulful voice, Winehouse connected with such hits as "Rehab," "You Know I'm No Good," "Love Is a Losing Game," "Tears Dry On Their Own," and the title track. Produced by Mark Ronson and Salaam Remi, the disc was named by the Guardian the best album of the 21st century. In 2008, Winehouse became the first British woman to take home five Grammys in a single night, including song of the year, record of the year, and best new artist. Her early, tragic death robbed us all. PLAY: "Rehab" by Amy Winehouse Texan Freddie Fender had his first big hit with his cover of the Vivian Keith and Ben Peters song, "Before the Next Teardrop Falls," which had previously been recorded by Duane Dee and Jerry Lee Lewis, among others. In 1974, Fender sang a version in English and Spanish, which was released on the Crazy Cajun label. After ABC Dot reissued it, the song landed on the top of the country charts, and ultimately #1 on the Billboard Hot 100. PLAY: "Before the Next Teardrop Falls" by Freddy Fender Jazz icon Miles Davis' 1959 album "Kind of Blue" was added to the National Recording Registry in 2002. It is now joined by his 1969 experimental album, "Bitches Brew," which marked an even further departure from traditional jazz. Davis composed most of the two-discs' long-form tracks (with Wayne Shorter and Joe Zawinul each contributing one). Critic Robert Christgau described the music here as "very much like jazz and something like rock." "Bitches Brew" won the Grammy for best large jazz ensemble album. PLAY: "Bitches Brew" by Miles Davis They were "a rock band with horns," making Chicago's blend of rock, R&B, jazz and funk instantly recognizable. Their debut album, a double-LP, rode up into the Billboard 200 charts, where it stayed for more than three years. Tracks include "Does Anybody Really Know What Time It Is?," "Beginnings," "Questions 67 and 68," "I'm a Man," "Listen," and "South California Purples." PLAY: "Beginnings" by Chicago Mariachi singer Vicente Fernandez recorded scores of albums during his long career, winning four Grammy Awards and nine Latin Grammys. His 1973 recording of "El Rey," is perhaps the most celebrated rendition of this traditional Ranchera song. PLAY: "El Rey" by Vicente Fernandez The platinum-bestselling of the Steve Miller Band's 18 studio albums, "Fly Like An Eagle" features "Take the Money and Run," "Rock'n Me," "Wild Mountain Honey," "Sweet Maree" and "Dance, Dance, Dance," and of course the title track. The album also includes covers of Sam Cooke's "You Send Me," and K. C. Douglas and Bob Geddins' "Mercury Blues." The distinctive sound of "Fly Like an Eagle" was created by Miller playing a Fender Stratocaster enhanced with a Maestro Echoplex that produced tape delay effects. He told Guitar Player magazine that he'd been inspired by experimental electronic composers like Stockhausen, and had played around with tape recorders and reverb effects to create "really deep space kinds of sounds." PLAY: "Fly Like An Eagle" by Steve Miller Band The 1960 World Series between the Pittsburgh Pirates and the New York Yankees all came down to the final inning of the seventh game, tied 9-9. With the Yankees' Ralph Terry on the mound, Pirate Bill Mazeroski strode to the plate, and announcer Chuck Thompson called one of the most dramatic moments in baseball history. So startled was Thompson that he blew it, announcing over the roar of the crowd that the final score was 10-0 instead of 10-9, but he turned down a chance to re-record his call for posterity, stating, "I figured it had gone on the air that way, so it would not be honest to change it." PLAY: Bottom of the ninth inning… "Goodbye Yellow Brick Road" was one in a remarkable run of 12 albums released by Elton John within a mere seven-year span, from his 1969 debut "Empty Sky," through to "Blue Moves" in 1976. A double-album, it was his third to reach #1 on the U.S. Billboard charts, and produced several classics, including "Bennie and the Jets," "Candle in the Wind," "Funeral for a Friend/Love Lies Bleeding," "Goodbye Yellow Brick Road," "Harmony," and "Saturday Night's Alright for Fighting." His longtime collaboration with partner Bernie Taupin, which has run nearly six decades, is unusual given their songwriting process — they don't work in the same room together. It begins with Taupin's lyrics: "I read it through first," John told "Sunday Morning" in 2019 . "I look at the title, I read the song through. And then a little film comes into my mind, a visual. So, by the time I get to the end of reading the lyric, I kind of know what tempo the song might be. And then, I just literally put my hands on the keyboard and hope for the best. And that, again, is a divine act." PLAY: "Bennie and the Jets" by Elton John How does a bastard, orphan, son of a whore and a Scotsman, dropped in the middle of a forgotten Spot in the Caribbean by Providence, impoverished, in squalor Grow up to be a hero and a scholar? Lin-Manuel Miranda's remarkable rap musical about the "ten-dollar Founding Father without a father" was born from his vacation reading of Robert Chernow's 700-page biography, "Alexander Hamilton." Less likely source material for a musical could not be imagined! Yet, Miranda told "Sunday Morning" in 2015 , "By the end of the second chapter, I was on Google saying, 'Someone's already made this into a musical. How can anyone not have made this into a musical?'" Speaking of Hamilton, Miranda said, "This is a guy who, on the strength of his writing, pulled himself from poverty into the revolution that helped create our nation, and caught beef with every other founding father. I mean, there's great drama; there's a great love story; there is incredible political intrigue." Miranda's brilliance in defining the character of a nation through a figure whom history mostly remembered for having been shot to death in a duel would lead to a landmark work of musical theater – truly revolutionary. With a color-blind cast, the show staged a life befitting the young America: Hey, yo, I'm just like my country I'm young, scrappy and hungry And I'm not throwing away my shot. After debuting off-Broadway in 2015, "Hamilton" moved to Broadway, won 11 Tony Awards, and produced a Grammy-winning cast album. PLAY: "Alexander Hamilton" from "Hamilton" Singing cowboy star Roy Rogers began acting in western films in the 1930s, and by 1944 he starred in his own radio program, "The Roy Rogers Show." When he launched a TV series in the early '50s, its theme song (credited to him and his wife, Dale Evans) was this leisurely-sung ballad bidding farewell "until we meet again." PLAY: "Happy Trails" by Roy Rogers and Dale Evans Musicologist Harry Urata, a Japanese-American born in Hawaii, was detained in an internment camp during World War II. There he met Japanese immigrant farm laborers from Hawaii's sugar plantation, and learned of the folk songs ( holehole bushi ) that they sang as they workers. That led to a lifelong fascination with studying and preserving folk music. While working as a music programmer for a Japanese-language radio station in Hawaii, he traveled the state and gathered song lyrics and audio recordings. His open-reel tapes have since been preserved by the Smithsonian Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage . The standup comic's nickname "Mr. Warmth" was ironic, if you only knew Don Rickles from his on-stage persona, in which he skewered everyone under the sun, as documented in his first comedy album. Recorded at the Sahara Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas, "Hello Dummy!" was clearly before the era of political correctness, mocking all races, religions, creeds and sexual orientations. Just a few minutes in, he acknowledges one audience member: "These are the jokes, lady. If you're waiting for Billy Graham to come in here, forget about it. For a finish, I give out dirty pamphlets." PLAY: "Hello Dummy!" by Don Rickles Singer Helen Reddy had had one hit with a cover of "I Don't Know How to Love Him" (from "Jesus Christ Superstar"), when she co-wrote, with Ray Burton, "I Am Woman." Reddy said the song was about overcoming difficulties. In a 1974 interview with the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation , she described herself as a feminist, though she avoided the term women's liberation like the plague: "It just has too many bad connotations in people's minds. What I'm trying to do is appeal to a particular segment that I don't feel has been approached properly. You know, you can't approach any two groups the same way, and I would like to get into the hearts and minds of women who, for example, wouldn't have a copy of Ms. magazine in their house. But these women can be reached and ... I'm trying to find a way to reach them, which is to build them up psychically, to give them a confidence in themselves that they've never had." The song became her first #1 hit on the Billboard charts, and earned Reddy a Grammy for best female pop vocal performance. She would have two more #1 hits, with "Delta Dawn" and "Angie Baby." PLAY: "I Am Woman" by Helen Reddy Sheffield Lab's direct-to-disc audiophile vinyl recordings in the 1970s eschewed multitrack recordings and mixdowns, instead recording artists direct to a lacquer master, with no editing possible. A recording session would last the length of the side of an LP. Make a mistake? You start over from scratch. No pressure! Motown artist Thelma Houston was brought into the studio, with studio musicians (dubbed Pressure Cooker) whose presence was heightened by the direct-to-disc's improved dynamics. PLAY: "I've Got the Music in Me" by Thelma Houston & Pressure Cooker Charley Pride had already had seven #1 country hits when his song "Kiss An Angel Good Mornin'," from the album "Charley Pride Sings Heart Songs," became his eighth – and his first to hit the Billboard Top 40 pop chart. Pride, who died in 2020, was the first Black country superstar. He won three Grammys (plus a lifetime achievement award), and in 1971 was named Entertainer of the Year by the Country Music Association. He also won the Academy of Country Music's Pioneer Award in 1974. PLAY: "Kiss An Angel Good Mornin'" by Charley Pride The bestselling solo jazz album in history, pianist Keith Jarrett's 1975 recording of his performance at the Opera House in Kӧln, West Germany, almost didn't happen – the piano he'd planned to use wasn't available, and the only instrument on hand was sub-par. He was also suffering from back pain, and had not slept well for days. The result: He realigned his playing to accommodate the inferior piano's keys, and improvised music that critics have called "otherwordly" and "transcendent." PLAY: "The Kӧln Concert" (Part 1) by Keith Jarrett When Microsoft released its Windows 95 operating software – a big leap up from MS-DOS – the designers wanted an inviting sound to welcome users to the graphical interface. They turned to music producer Brian Eno to create an audio greeting. In a 1996 interview with SFGate , Eno explained that, at the time of his commission, he had been struggling for ideas and felt lost: "I really appreciated someone coming along and saying, 'Here's a specific problem – solve it.' The thing from the agency said, 'We want a piece of music that is inspiring, universal, blah-blah, da-da-da, optimistic, futuristic, sentimental, emotional,' this whole list of adjectives, and then at the bottom it said, 'and it must be 3 1/4 seconds long.' "I thought this was so funny and an amazing thought to actually try to make a little piece of music. It's like making a tiny little jewel," he said. He turned in 84 musical pieces; Microsoft ended up using a much longer sample – just under six seconds! "Then when I'd finished that and I went back to working with pieces that were, like, three minutes long, it seemed like oceans of time," Eno said. PLAY: Microsoft Windows 95 Chime For the immersive sandbox game Minecraft, composer and sound designer Daniel Rosenfeld (also known as C418) used synthesizers to create an electronic ambience that is not tied to explicit action or setting. Inspired by the music of minimalist Steve Reich, Brian Eno and Eric Satie, Rosenfeld's soundtrack is simple and evocative – and suited to the technical limitations of the game's sound engine. He told Vice , "When you see [Minecraft] it's immediately apparent that you want a certain style of music because it's low-resolution and everything is blocky." The soundtrack album "Minecraft – Volume Alpha" features 24 tracks, one of which, "Sweden," became one of the most streamed video game compositions on Spotify. PLAY: "Sweden" from "Minecraft" At first, director James Cameron did not want a pop song playing under the credits of his three-hour-plus epic "Titanic." And when composer James Horner (who was working on the film's score) teamed up with lyricist Will Jennings to write a ballad, Canadian singer Celine Dion didn't want to do it. But she agreed to record a demo – and that emotional rendition wound up in the film. The song won an Academy Award (one of "Titanic"'s 11 Oscars), four Grammys, and became Dion's signature song. PLAY: "My Heart Will Go On" The singer-songwriter-rapper Mary J. Blige's 1992 debut, "What's the 411?" hit #1 on the R&B charts. She topped the chart again with her sophomore record, "My Life." Blige wrote or co-wrote the lyrics of 14 of the album's 17 tracks, which delve into such topics as drug and alcohol abuse, depression and heartbreak, as well as healing. PLAY: "Be Happy" by Mary J. Blige Born in Inez, Kentucky, Nimrod Workman (1895-1994) was a coal miner, union activist and folk singer. After retiring from the mines, Workman began recording oral histories, traditional ballads, and his own songs. He was also recorded by folklorists like Alan Lomax, and appeared in documentaries, including "Harlan County, USA." He was also featured on the soundtrack of the Loretta Lynn biopic "Coal Miner's Daughter." Workman released two albums, "Passing Thru the Garden," and "Mother Jones' Will." A third, "I Want to Go Where Things Are Beautiful," was released posthumously. PLAY: Nimrod Workman sings "Oh Death" The Grammy-winning a capella choral group Chanticleer, formed in 1978 by musicologist Louis Botto, has sold more than one million recordings, with a repertoire that encompasses classical, gospel, jazz and other genres. This collection of music, marking the group's 25th anniversary, features their recordings of American standards, in addition to gospel, hymns and popular songs. PLAY: Chanticleer performs "Jeanie with the Light Brown Hair" This bright, sunny cover of a 1925 jazz standard, recorded by a whistling Brother Bones & His Shadows, became a hit, and when the Harlem Globetrotters adopted it as their theme song, it achieved immortality. The song is notable not just for Brother Bones' use of rhythm bones as percussive instruments, but also a Novachord – an early analog synthesizer – creating the bass line. PLAY: "Sweet Georgia Brown" by Brother Bones & His Shadows As a student at Tufts University, Cleveland's own Tracy Chapman recorded demos of her songs at the college radio station. According to a retrospective in Rolling Stone , a fellow student pinched one of the demo tapes and shared it with his father, the co-owner of a music publishing firm. He helped Chapman sign with Elektra Records. "I didn't think there was any indication that record people would find the kind of music that I did marketable," Chapman later recalled. "Especially when I was singing songs like 'Talkin' 'bout a Revolution' … I didn't see a place for me there." There definitely was a place; "Tracy Chapman" sold 20 million copies. She was nominated for six Grammys for her debut (including album of the year), and won three (including best new artist). PLAY: "Fast Car" by Tracy Chapman
