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Neil Diamond is an American singer-songwriter and occasional actor. He is one of pop music’s most enduring and successful singer-songwriters. He scored a number of hits worldwide in the 1960s, 1970s, and 1980s. As of May 2005, Diamond has sold 160 million records worldwide, including 48 million records in the United States.

Diamond was born in New York City into a Jewish Russian-Polish family. He sang in the high school choir and during his senior year in New York University, a music publishing company offered him $50 a week to write songs. Later in 1963, he signed with Columbia Records as a solo performer. Sales were disappointing and the label dropped Diamond. He spent his early career as a songwriter in the Brill Building.

Both The Monkees and Elvis Presley recorded versions of Diamond’s songs. IN 1966, he had a hit with “Solitary Man” and followed it with “Cherry, Cherry.” In the 1970s, he signed with MCA Records and had a major hit with “Sweet Caroline.” Diamond starred in a remake of the Al Jolson classic The Jazz Singer in 1980 opposite Sir Laurence Olivier. His record sales slumped somewhat in the 1980s and 1990s but his concert tours continued to be big draws. He continues to record and tour.

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Since his 1955 song “Folsom Prison Blues,” musician Johnny Cash had an interest in performing at a prison. His idea was put on hold until 1967 when personnel changes at Columbia Records put a different executive in charge of producing Cash’s material.

Cash had recently controlled his drug abuse problems and was looking to turn his career around after several years of limited commercial success. backed with June Carter, Carl Perkins, and Cash’s band, the Tennessee Three, Cash performed two shows at Folsom State Prison on January 13, 1968. Cash opened both shows with a rendition of “Folsom Prison Blues” and the concerts contained many songs about prison, songs of despair, a few “slow ballad-type songs,” followed by two novelty songs.

The album release of At Folsom Prison was prepared in four months. Columbia initially invested little into the album or its single “Folsom Prison Blues” because of the label’s efforts to promote pop stars instead of country artists. The single charted but was edited and re-released after the assassination of Robert F. Kennedy. The new version became a success and the album eventually reached number one on the Top Country Albums chart and number thirteen on the Billboard 200, as well as selling over 500,000 copies.

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Syd Barrett was an English singer, songwriter, guitarist and artist. He is more remembered as a founding member of psychedelic rock band Pink Floyd, providing major musical and stylistic direction in their early work, although he left the group in 1968 almost speculations of mental illness exacerbated by heavy drug use.

Barrett was born in the English city of Cambridge to a middle-class family and his parents encouraged the young man in his music. He joined what would later become known as Pink Floyd in 1965 and devised the band’s name. He was the principal author/visionary of the band’s critically-acclaimed 1967 debut album, The Piper at the Gates of Dawn. His behavior became increasingly unpredictable partly as a consequence of frequent experimentation with psychedelic drugs such as LSD.

Barrett was active as a rock musician for approximately seven years, recording two albums with Pink Floyd and two solo albums before going into self-imposed seclusion lasting more than 30 years. His post-rock band life was an artist and keen gardener, ending with his death in 2006. A number of biographies have been written about him since the 1980s. During his withdrawal from public life, there were numerous works about him, most notably the 1975 album, Wish You Were Here by his former band Pink Floyd.

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Richard “Rick” Danko was a Canadian musician and singer, best known as a member of The Band. He was born in Green’s Corner, a farming community outside of the town of Simcoe, Ontario, to a musical family. Growing up in front of the family radio, he was exposed to country and R&B music at an early age.

At the age of 14, Danko left school to pursue music and at 17, he booked himself as the opening act for Ronnie Hawkins, an American rockabilly singer. Danko impressed Hawkins and he asked him to join his group as the rhythm guitarist. After the band’s bassist was fired, Danko learned to play that musical instrument. Also in Hawkins’ band were future bandmates, drummer Levon Helm, lead guitarist Robbie Robertson, pianist Richard Manuel, and organist Garth Hudson.

Along with Danko, they left Hawkins’ band in 1963 and played a circuit that stretched from Ontario to Arkansas. In 1965, they became Bob Dylan’s backing band at his request. In 1967, they split from Dylan and began recording their own music as The Band, releasing their debut, Music from Big Pink, in 1968. Danko became known for his iconic tenor, his on-top-of-the-melody harmonies, and his percussive, melodic bass-playing style. After The Band’s farewell concert in November 1976, Danko became a solo artist and died on December 10, 1999 in his sleep after his heart gave out.

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Frank Zappa was an American composer, electric guitarist, record producer, and film director. In a career spanning more than 30 years, he wrote rock, jazz, electronic, orchestral, and musique concrete works. He also directed feature-length films and music videos, and designed album covers. Zappa produced almost all of the more than 60 albums he released with the band Mothers of Invention and as a solo artist.

Zappa began writing classical music in high school, while at the same time playing drums in rhythm and blues bands – he later switched to electric guitar. He was an autodidact composer and performer, and his diverse musical influences led him to create music that was often impossible to categorize. His 1966 debut album with the Mothers of Invention, Freak Out!, combined songs in convention rock and roll format with collective improvisations and studio-generated sound collages.

Zappa’s later albums shared this eclectic and experimental approach. He was a highly productive and prolific artist and he gained widespread critical acclaim. Many of his albums are considered essential in rock history and he remains a major influence on musicians and composers. He died of prostate cancer in 1993 and had four children with Adelaide Gail Sloatman.

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Billy Bragg is an English musician who blends elements of folk music, punk rock and protest songs. His lyrics mostly deal with political or romantic themes. His music career has lasted more than 30 years and he has collaborated with the likes of Johnny Marr, Michelle Shocked, and Kirsty MacColl.

In 1977, Bragg formed the punk rock/pub band Riff Raff and toured London’s pubs and clubs. He became disillusioned with his music career and joined the British Army in May 1981. After buying his way out, Bragg began constantly performing concerts and busking around London, playing solo with an electric guitar. After recording and releasing Life’s a Riot with Spy vs. Spy and Brewing Up with Billy Bragg in 1983 and 1984 respectively, he released Talking with the Taxman About Poetry, which became his first top ten album.

With Workers Playtime, released in 1988, Bragg added a backing band and accompaniment. The album Don’t Try This at Home was released in 1991 and included the song “Sexuality,” which made it into the United Kingdom Singles Chart. Bragg released the album William Bloke in 1996 after taking time off to help raise his son. Bragg, the band Wilco and Natalie Merchant record an album of unrecorded lyrics of Woody Guthrie’s to music.

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Born in Orange County, California, Mike Mills is the bass player of the band R.E.M. Though known primarily as a bassist, piano player and background singer, his musical repertoire includes many other keyboard, guitar, string, wind and percussion instruments. He also contributes to much of the band’s songwriting.

As a young boy, Mills moved with his family to Macon, Georgia. His father Frank was a singer who appeared on The Ed Sullivan Show, while his mother Adora was a piano teacher, which helped Mills develop a love of music at an early age. He met and formed a band with drummer friend Bill Berry in high school. They met Peter Buck and Michael Stipe after starting at the University of Georgia in Athens.

Mills, Berry, Buck, and Stipe decided to drop out of college and focus on their band, now called R.E.M. The band quickly developed a following and were soon signed to I.R.S. Records. Mills is responsible for the songwriting of some of R.E.M.’s songs, including “Find the River”, “Why Not Smile”, and “What’s the Frequency, Kenneth?” He is known for his collection of Nudie suits that he often wears on stage and were first seen in the 1994 video for “What’s the Frequency, Kenneth?” and then regularly on the subsequent 1995 Monster tour.

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John Lennon was an English rock musician who gained worldwide fame as one of the founders of The Beatles, for his subsequent solo career, and for his political activism. He was shot four times by Mark David Chapman in the entrance hallway of the building where he lived, The Dakota in New York City. Lennon had just returned from the Record Plant Studio with his wife, Yoko Ono.

Lennon was pronounced dead on arrival at St. Luke’s-Roosevelt Hospital Center, where it was stated that nobody could have live for very long after sustaining such injuries. Even though Lennon arrived at the hospital with virtually no pulse, a team of doctors tried desperately to save his life using various medical procedures. Blood transfusions as well as heart massage were attempted in an effort to save his life.

Shortly after local news stations reported Lennon’s death, crowds gathered at Roosevelt Hospital and in front of The Dakota, reciting prayers and singing Lennon’s songs. His cremation was on December 10, 1980, at the Ferncliff Cemetery in Hartsdale, New York. The ashes were given to Ono, who decided not to hold a funeral for him. Liverpool renamed its airport to Liverpool John Lennon Airport.

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Ozzy Osbourne is a British singer whose career has now spanned four decades. He rose to prominence as lead vocalist of pioneering English heavy metal band Black Sabbath and eventually achieved a multi-platinum solo career which revolutionalized the heavy metal genre. As a result, he is known as the “Godfather of Heavy Metal.”

Osbourne was born in Aston, Birmingham, England. He left school at 15 and would later form a band with former classmate Tony Iommi after he auditioned for a lead singer. They named their band Black Sabbath after the Mario Bava horror film of the same name. They met with swift and enduring success. Built around Iommi’s guitar riffs, Geezer Butler’s lyrics and topped by Osbourne’s eerie vocals, their records sold in huge numbers.

In 1979, Osbourne was fired from Sabbath largely for unreliability due to substance abuse. His first solo album, Blizzard of Ozz, met with considerable success and sold well with heavy metal fans. In the 1980s and 1990s, Osbourne’s career was an effort to continue to make music without inspirational guitarist Randy Rhoads and become sober. In the early 2000s, his career as a celebrity was revived when he became a star in his own reality show, The Osbournes alongside wife/manager Sharon and two of their three children, Kelly and Jack.

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Bill Doggett was an American jazz and rhythm and blues pianist and organist born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. His mother, a church pianist, introduced him to music when he was nine years old. By the time Doggett was 15, he had joined a Philadelphia area combo, playing local theaters and clubs while attending high school.

In 1942, he was hired as The Ink Spots’ pianist and arranger. In 1949, he replaced Will Bill Davis in Louis Jordan’s Tympany Five. It was there that Doggett first achieved success playing the Hammond organ and is also reputed to have written one of Jordan’s biggest hits, “Saturday Night Fish Fry.” In 1951, Doggett organized his own trio and began recording for King Records. His best known recording is “Honky Tonk,” a rhythm and blues hit of 1956 which sold four million copies.

Doggett won the Cash Box award for best rhythm and blues performer from 1957 to 1959. He arranged for many bandleaders and performers, including Louis Armstrong, Count Basie, Ella Fitzgerald, and Lionel Hampton. As a jazz player, Doggett started in swing music and later played soul jazz. He continued to play and arrange until he died of a heart attack in New York City.

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