Saturday, July 14, 2012
U2 - One - HD
"One" is a song by Irish rock band U2. It is the third track from their 1991 album Achtung Baby, and it was released as the record's third single in March 1992. During the album's recording sessions at Hansa Studios in Berlin, conflict arose between the band members over the direction of U2's sound and the quality of their material. Tensions almost prompted the band to break up until they achieved a breakthrough by improvising "One"; the song was written after the band members found inspiration from a chord progression that guitarist The Edge composed. The lyrics, written by lead singer Bono, were informed by the band members' fractured relationships and the German reunification. Although the lyrics ostensibly describe "disunity", they have been interpreted in other ways.
"One" was released as a benefit single, with proceeds going towards AIDS research. The song reached number one in the Irish Singles Charts on 5th March 1992. It peaked at number seven in the UK Singles Chart and at number ten on the Billboard Hot 100. It topped the US Billboard Album Rock Tracks and Modern Rock Tracks charts. In promotion of the song, the band had several music videos filmed, although they were not pleased until the third video was created. The song has since been acclaimed as one of the greatest songs of all time, and it is consistently featured in listener and critic polls. The song has been played by U2 at every one of their tour concerts since the song's live debut in 1992, and it has appeared in many of the band's concert films. In a live setting, "One" is often used by the band to promote human rights or social justice causes, and the song lends its namesake to Bono's charitable organization, the ONE Campaign. In 2006, U2 re-recorded the song as part of a duet with contemporary R&B singer Mary J. Blige on her album The Breakthrough.
Megan Dettrey - Everytime
"Hey guys, this is one of the songs I wrote while I was in college this past year! I really like this one and hope you do to! Let me know what you think :)"
~ Megan
*Video Directed by: Cody Smith*
Lyrics:
Everytime ~ Megan Dettrey © 2012
You are the pinpoint on my map
But the directions to your heart
Get me lost, it's all unclear
Well I don't know when it clicked
But something caught my eyes
And now I've got to steer
And I don't know what I'll find
Chorus:
Cause everytime that your face is on my mind,
I slip into a world in which you're mine
But everytime that my feelings start to show
They get hidden with the words I won't let flow
And maybe one-day, things will change
So I'll be with you
You make the days go up and down
As these feelings rush through my veins
When I get away from you
But then I come back and relapse
On how you make me feel
My attempts to break away fall through
So I guess I'll keep holding on
Chorus:
Cause everytime that your face is on my mind,
I slip into a world in which you're mine
But everytime that my feelings start to show
They get hidden with the words I won't let flow
And maybe one-day things will change
So I'll be with you
I'm stuck on this roller coaster
It never seems to end, oh
I don't know what to do
But I just can't pretend
Chorus:
Cause everytime
Oh, everytime that your face is on my mind,
I slip into a world in which you're mine
But everytime that my feelings start to show
They get hidden with the words I won't let flow
And maybe one-day things will change
So I'll be with you
Oh, everytime
Dean Martin - Youve Still Got A Place In My Heart - HD
Dean Martin (born Dino Paul Crocetti; June 7, 1917 -- December 25, 1995) was an American singer, film actor, television star and comedian. Martin's hit singles included "Memories Are Made of This", "That's Amore", "Everybody Loves Somebody", "You're Nobody till Somebody Loves You", "Sway", "Volare" and "Ain't That a Kick in the Head?". Nicknamed the "King of Cool", he was one of the members of the "Rat Pack" and a major star in four areas of show business: concert stage/night clubs, recordings, motion pictures, and television.
Martin was born in Steubenville, Ohio, to Italian parents, Gaetano and Angela Crocetti (née Barra). His father was from Abruzzo, Italy, and his mother was an Italian of part Neapolitan and part Sicilian ancestry. Martin was the younger of two sons. His brother was named Bill. Martin spoke only Italian until he started school. He attended Grant Elementary School in Steubenville, and took up the drums as a hobby as a teenager. He was the target of much ridicule for his broken English and ultimately dropped out of Steubenville High School in the 10th grade because he thought that he was smarter than his teachers. He delivered bootleg liquor, served as a speakeasy croupier, was a blackjack dealer, worked in a steel mill and boxed as welterweight. He grew up a neighbor to Jimmy the Greek.
At the age of 15, he was a boxer who billed himself as "Kid Crochet". His prizefighting years earned him a broken nose (later straightened), a scarred lip, and many sets of broken knuckles (a result of not being able to afford the tape used to wrap boxers' hands). Of his twelve bouts, he would later say "I won all but eleven."[3] For a time, he roomed with Sonny King, who, like Martin, was just starting in show business and had little money. It is said that Martin and King held bare-knuckle matches in their apartment, fighting until one of them was knocked out; people paid to watch.
Eventually, Martin gave up boxing. He worked as a roulette stickman and croupier in an illegal casino behind a tobacco shop where he had started as a stock boy. At the same time, he sang with local bands, calling himself "Dino Martini" (after the famous Metropolitan Opera tenor, Nino Martini). He got his first break working for the Ernie McKay Orchestra. He sang in a crooning style influenced by Harry Mills (of the Mills Brothers), among others. In the early 1940s, he started singing for bandleader Sammy Watkins, who suggested that he change his name to Dean Martin.
In October 1941, Martin married Elizabeth Anne McDonald. During their marriage (ended by divorce in 1949), they had four children. Martin worked for various bands throughout the early 1940s, mostly on looks and personality until he developed his own singing style. Martin famously flopped at the Riobamba, a high class nightclub in New York, when he followed Frank Sinatra in 1943, but it was the setting for their meeting.
Martin was drafted into the United States Army in 1944 during World War II, serving a year stationed in Akron, Ohio. He was then reclassified as 4-F and was discharged (possibly because of a double hernia; Jerry Lewis referred to the surgery that Martin needed for this in his autobiography).
By 1946, Martin was doing relatively well, but was still little more than an East Coast nightclub singer with a common style, similar to that of Bing Crosby. He drew audiences to the clubs where he played, but he inspired none of the fanatical popularity enjoyed by Sinatra.
On December 1, 1983 while gambling at the Golden Nugget casino in Atlantic City, Martin and Sinatra intimidated the dealer and several employees into breaking New Jersey law by making the dealer deal the cards by hand instead of from a shoe. Although Sinatra and Martin were implicated as the cause of the violation, neither was fined by the New Jersey Casino Control Commission. The Golden Nugget received a $25,000 fine (which Sinatra paid, stating that it was his responsibility as he and Martin were the cause of the fine) and four employees including the dealer, a supervisor and pit boss were suspended from their jobs without pay.
Martin returned to films briefly with appearances in the two star-laden, yet critically panned Cannonball Run movies. He also had a minor hit single with "Since I Met You Baby" and made his first music video, which appeared on MTV. The video was created by Martin's youngest son, Ricci.
Martin was diagnosed with lung cancer at Cedars Sinai Medical Center in September 1993, and in early 1995 retired from public life. He died of acute respiratory failure resulting from emphysema at his Beverly Hills home on Christmas morning 1995, at age 78. The lights of the Las Vegas Strip were dimmed in his honor.
blondie - heart of glass (bnw glamour slideshow)
"Heart of Glass" is a song by American New Wave band Blondie, written by singer Deborah Harry and guitarist Chris Stein. Featured on the band's third studio album, Parallel Lines, it was released as a single in January 1979 and topped the charts in several countries, including the US and UK.
Rolling Stone ranked the song number 255 on its list of the 500 greatest songs of all time.
An early version of "Heart of Glass" called "Once I Had Love" was written by Deborah Harry and Chris Stein in the period 1974/75. This earlier version was initially recorded as a demo in 1975. The song had a slower, funkier sound with a basic disco beat. For this reason it was known as "The Disco Song." The song was re-recorded in a second demo with the same title in 1978, when the song was made a bit more rock-oriented. The band then decided to record the song for the album Parallel Lines, which was produced by Mike Chapman.
Exactly who decided to give the song a more pronounced disco vibe is subject to differing recollections. On some occasions the producer Mike Chapman has stated that he convinced Deborah Harry and Chris Stein to give the song a disco twist. On other occasions Chapman has credited Deborah Harry with the idea. As a band Blondie had experimented with disco before, both in the predecessors to "Heart of Glass" and in live cover songs that the band played at shows. Bassist Gary Valentine noted that the set list for early Blondie shows often included disco hits such as "Honey Bee" or "My Imagination." In an interview published in the February 4, 1978 edition of New Musical Express, Debbie Harry expressed her affinity for the eurodisco music of Giorgio Moroder, stating that "It's commercial, but its good, it says something...that's the kind of stuff that I want to do." A notable example of this type of musical experimentation occurred when Blondie covered Donna Summer's "I Feel Love" at the Blitz Benefit on May 7, 1978. In his history of CBGB, music writer Roman Kozak described this event: "When Blondie played for the Johnny Blitz benefit in May, 1978, they surprised everyone with a rendition of Donna Summer's 'I Feel Love.' It was arguably the first time in New York, in the middle of the great rock versus disco split, that a rock band had played a disco song. Blondie went on to record 'Heart of Glass,' other groups recorded other danceable songs, and dance rock was born."
In any event, no matter who came up with the idea, the song was ultimately given the disco orientation that made the song one of the best-known Blondie recordings. For the single release the track was remixed by Chapman with the double-tracked bass drum even more accentuated.
In reflecting on the development of "Heart of Glass" from its earliest incarnations until the recorded version on Parallel Lines, Chris Stein noted that the earliest versions had a basic conventional disco beat, but that the recorded version incorporated the electronic sound of eurodisco, stating that "The original arrangement of 'Heart of Glass' - as on the [1975] Betrock demos - had doubles on the high-hat cymbals, a more straight-ahead disco beat. When we recorded it for Parallel Lines we were really into Kraftwerk, and we wanted to make it more electronic. We weren't thinking disco as we were doing it; we thought it was more electro-European."
Ironically, the Parallel Lines version (and most others) contained some rhythmic features that were very unusual for the disco context, which typically strictly follows a 4-beats-per-measure pattern for maximum danceablility. The instrumental interludes in "Heart of Glass", in contrast, have a beat pattern of 4-3-4-3-4-3-4-4, totaling 29 beats instead of the usual 32.
The song was released in January 1979, and reached number one in both the US and the UK. The UK B-side was "Rifle Range", from Blondie's self-titled debut album, while the US single used the Parallel Lines track "11:59". The accompanying music video for "Heart of Glass" was filmed at Studio 54 in New York City.
The versions appearing on the 7" single issued in early 1979 varied from country to country. Some used the regular album version (UK, 3:54), others an edited album version (US, 3:22) and others an edited version of the 12" Disco Mix (4:10), which is the one usually found on current hits compilations like the 1994 anthology The Platinum Collection, Greatest Hits: Sight + Sound (2005) and Greatest Hits: Sound & Vision (2006). For the band's very first hits compilation, 1981's The Best of Blondie, producer Mike Chapman created a special mix including elements from both the 12" Disco Version and the 12" Instrumental (4:33). The 1981 version appears on 2002's Greatest Hits.
britney spears - piece of me (glamour slideshow)
Blackout is the fifth studio album by American recording artist Britney Spears, released on October 26, 2007 by Jive Records, four years after her previous studio album In the Zone. Spears started writing songs for the album in November 2003, and began experimenting with a more acoustic sound. Following her marriage with Kevin Federline in 2004 and the birth of her first son the subsequent year, she begun recording the album in 2006 with producers J. R. Rotem, Danja and Kara DioGuardi. She gave birth to her second son and filed for divorce in late 2006, after which she continued working with producers such as The Clutch and Bloodshy & Avant. In May 2007, she embarked on The M+M's Tour at House of Blues venues across the United States.
Recording sessions took place at various studios around the country, including at Spears' home in Los Angeles. Some of the producers claimed to be impressed with her work ethic and professionalism, despite all her problems in her personal life. Spears wanted to make a fun, danceable album with uptempo, high-energy music. Blackout is mainly an electropop and dance album, which incorporates elements of several musical genres such as funk, Euro disco and dubstep. The themes of the album range from fame, sex, love and dancing. The cover sleeve and images were shot by Ellen von Unwerth. The centerfold pictures, which feature Spears and a priest in suggestive poses in a confessional, were condemned by the Catholic League.
Blackout was to be released on November 13, 2007, but it was moved up to October 30 due to unauthorized leaks. Zomba Label Group sued Perez Hilton for posting at least ten leaks on his gossip blog; the parties reached a settlement in June 2009. Blackout received mostly positive reviews from music critics. Most called it her most progressive and consistent album yet, but others argued that its quality should have been attributed to the producers rather than Spears, and also criticized her vocals for being overly-processed. Blackout was set to debut at the top of the Billboard 200, but debuted at number two due to a last-minute rule change. The album topped the European Top 100 Albums and the Canadian and Irish charts, while peaking inside the top ten in another thirteen countries. By the end of 2008, Blackout had sold 3.1 million copies worldwide.
Three singles were released from the album. "Gimme More" reached number three on the Billboard Hot 100 and became a top-five hit in fourteen countries. "Piece of Me" reached the top-ten in twelve countries, including Australia, Canada and the United Kingdom. Unlike her previous albums, Spears did not heavily promote Blackout. Her only performance to promote the album, "Gimme More" at the 2007 MTV Video Music Awards, was universally panned by critics. In subsequent years, reviewers have viewed the album in a more favorable light. Blackout has appeared on reader polls by Billboard and Rolling Stone, while The Times named it as the fifth best pop album of the decade. In 2010, Rob Sheffield of Rolling Stone called Blackout "the most influential album of the past five years."
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