The Last Tour of Buddy Holly, the 'Big Bopper' and Ritchie Valens. The tragic deaths of these three fifties Rock n Roll stars was immortalised in Don McLean's classic hit American Pie. The poignant story of the build-up to, events of, and the fall-out from the infamous 'Day The Music Died' are told here in painstaking chronological detail. A must for any serious rock n roll fan or student.
The Last Tour of Buddy Holly, the 'Big Bopper' and Ritchie Valens. The tragic deaths of these three fifties Rock n Roll stars was immortalised in Don McLean's classic hit American Pie. The poignant story of the build-up to, events of, and the fall-out from the infamous 'Day The Music Died' are told here in painstaking chronological detail. A must for any serious rock n roll fan or student.
Their lives were cut brutally short...yet the legacy has on lived on for four decades. They were three of rock 'n' roll's brightest stars, touring together in a music revue that was as grueling as it was magical. Dilapidated school buses that frequently broke down and rarely had heat carried them hundreds of miles across the Midwest with its unforgiving cold. Hoping to get a decent night's sleep, a hot meal, and a chance to clean the clothes they'd been wearing for weeks, Buddy Holly chartered a plane. On February 3, 1959, Ritchie Valens, the Big Bopper, and Buddy Holly boarded a small plane bound for rock 'n' roll heaven. This is their story, told by the family members, bandmates, and witnesses who lived it. Including material not seen in the original VH1 broadcast, Behind the Music: the Day the Music Died is a compelling record of one of rock 'n' roll's defining moments.
This title takes a calendrical approach to illuminating the history of Latinos and life in the United States and adds more value than a simple "this day in history" through primary source excerpts and resources for further research. Latino/a history has been relatively slow in gaining recognition despite the population's rich and varied history. Engaging and informative, Latino History Day by Day: A Reference Guide to Events will help address that oversight. Much more than just a "this-day-in-history" list, the guide describes important events in Latino/a history, augmenting many entries with a brief excerpt from a primary document. All entries include two annotated books and websites as key resources for follow up. The day-to-day reference is organized by the 365 days of the year with each day drawing from events that span several hundred years of Latino/a history, from Mexican Americans to Puerto Ricans to Cuban Americans. With this guide in hand, teachers will be able to more easily incorporate Latino/a history into their classes. Students will find the book an easy-to-use guide to the Latino/a past and an ideal starting place for research.
A fascinating collection of thirty compelling stories about events that shaped the North Star State, It Happened in Minnesota describes everything from harrowing shootouts with Sioux Indians to the mass execution of thirty-eight men, a bank robbery by Jesse James to the opening of the Mall of America. In an easy-to-read style that is entertaining as well as informative, It Happened in Minnesota will interest people of all ages.
This wide-ranging guide introduces (or reintroduces) readers to movie musicals past and present, enabling them to experience the development of this uniquely American art form—and discover films they'll love. This comprehensive guide covers movie musicals from their introduction with the 1927 film The Jazz Singer through 2015 releases. In all, it describes 125 movies, opening up the world of this popular form of entertainment to preteens, teens, and adults alike. An introduction explains the advent of movie musicals; then, in keeping with the book's historical approach, films are presented by decade and year with overviews of advances during particular periods. In this way, the reader not only learns about individual films but can see the big picture of how movie musicals developed and changed over time. For each film covered, the guide offers basic facts—studio, director, songwriters, actors, etc.—as well as a brief plot synopsis. Each entry also offers an explanation of why the movie is noteworthy, how popular it was or wasn't, and the influence the film might have had on later musicals. Sidebars offering brief biographies of important artists appear throughout the book.
A rousing, poignant look at the cultural history of rock & roll during the early 1960s. In the early 1960s, the nation was on track to fulfill its destiny in what was being called "the American Century." Baby boomers and rock & roll shared the country's optimism and energy. For "one brief, shining moment" in the early 1960s, both President John F. Kennedy and young people across the country were riding high. The dream of a New Frontier would soon give way, however, to a new reality involving assassinations, the Vietnam War, Cold War crises, the civil rights movement, a new feminist movement, and various culture wars. From the former host of NPR's Rock & Roll America, Richard Aquila's Rock & Roll in Kennedy's America offers an in-depth look at early 1960s rock & roll, as well as an unconventional history of Kennedy's America through the lens of popular music. Based on extensive research and exclusive interviews with Dion, Bo Diddley, Brenda Lee, Martha Reeves, Pete Seeger, Bob Gaudio, Dick Clark, and other legendary figures, the book rejects the myth that Buddy Holly's death in 1959 was "the day the music died." It proves that rock & roll during the early 1960s was vibrant and in tune with the history and events of this colorful era. These interviews and Aquila's research reveal unique insights and new details about politics, gender, race, ethnicity, youth culture, and everyday life. Rock & Roll in Kennedy's America recalls an important chapter in rock & roll and American history.
The history of rock and roll is a long and winding road full of unforgettable moments, but some of them provided more than magic memories: They triggered social and cultural revolutions. They radically changed the way music is performed and recorded. They altered our very perception of what popular music is. Written by a longtime industry insider and featuring interviews with over 100 key figures, Turning Points in Rock and Roll gives you a front-row seat to the pivotal events and breakthroughs of the past fifty-plus years in music. From the first great music festival at Monterey to the violence at Altamont that signaled the beginning of a new era, from Elvis's swiveling hips to Mick Jagger's pouting lips...it's all here -- the people and events that have kept rock and roll vibrant, vital, and constantly evolving in bold new directions. Book jacket.
Rolling Stone magazine recently released its list of the 100 greatest albums in rock music history, a period spanning more than fifty years. Nearly 60 percent of those albums were released in the decade from 1965 to 1975—the golden age of classic rock. This book is a wide-ranging portrait of that transformative and remarkable time, from the dawn of the singer-songwriter era to days before disco. This book is presented in a question-and-answer format, but it is hardly a “trivia” book. It covers such diverse topics as censorship, chart phenomena, album covers, rock groupies, manufactured bands, one-hit wonders, rock festivals, supergroups, novelty songs, and the Beatles. All of the major figures of the ‘60s and ‘70s are here: Cream, CCR, Jimi Hendrix, Joni Mitchell, Simon and Garfunkel, the Who, the Rolling Stones, Led Zeppelin, Bruce Springsteen, Queen, Neil Young, the Eagles, the Allman Brothers, Lynyrd Skynyrd, Stevie Wonder, Elton John, Linda Ronstadt, Pink Floyd, Billy Joel, Marvin Gaye, David Bowie, James Taylor, Carole King, Aretha Franklin, Lou Reed, Carly Simon, Laura Nyro, and many others. Exhaustively researched, So You Think You Know Rock and Roll? is filled with “I never knew that!” moments on every page.
A dynamic and original collection of essays on the transnational circulation and changing social meanings of Latin music across the Americas. The transcultural impact of Latin American musical forms in the United States calls for a deeper understanding of the shifting cultural meanings of music. Musical Migrations examines the tensions between the value of Latin popular music as a metaphor for national identity and its transnational meanings as it traverses national borders, geocultural spaces, audiences, and historical periods. The anthology analyzes, among others, the role of popular music in Caribbean diasporas in the United States and Europe, the trans-Caribbean identities of Salsa and reggae, the racial, cultural, and ethnic hybridity in rock across the Americas, and the tensions between tradition and modernity in Peruvian indigenous music, mariachi music in the United States, and in Trinidadian music.
