He was blessed with a set of pipes that Elvis Presley claimed were the best in the business. His eyes hidden behind his perpetual Ray-Bans, Roy Orbison stood perfectly still onstage, singing songs of devastating heartbreak.
Born in 1940 as Richard Starkey in the Dingle, one of Liverpools most gritty, rough-and-tumble neighbourhoods, he rose from a hardscrabble childhood marked by serious illnesses, long hospital stays, and little schooling to emerge, against all odds, as a locally renowned drummer. Taking the stage name Ringo Starr, his big break with the Beatles ......
Maria Callas was almost as well-known for her personal life - her jet-setting, her staggering weight loss, her tigress-like temperament, her affair with Aristotle Onassis (he threw her over for Jacqueline Kennedy) - as she was for her singing. This musical biography covers Callas' life and career.
In the interim since Rock Hudson's tragic demise as one of the early (and perhaps most shocking, based on his celebrity) victims of AIDS, his legend has evolved into a nationwide cult. Loaded with details never set into print before, this unvarnished, uncensored, unexpurgated overview of his life and career explains why.
My Twisted Tale of Gangsters, Oligarchs, and Pop Stars in Russia
When the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991, Russia opened its borders, and Russian audiences were hungry for Western popular music and the values it espoused. David Junk was one of the first idealistic, young Americans to seize this opportunity. Rockin' the Kremlin is the thrilling true story of how David became the first CEO of Universal Music ......
For some, Rod Stewart embodies all of the conceit and narcissism that susceptible egos are prone to once they make it big in the music industry. Even if that were true, however, that wouldn't change the fact that he is responsible for some of the greatest recordings ever made. A great number of those songs were recorded for the Mercury label ......
To some, he is the face behind classic Pink Floyd. To others, he is the temperament behind some of the greatest albums of the rock era. And to others still, he is one of the most original songwriters of a generation that overflows with notable talent. To all, he is an enigma: a rock star who not only eschewed stardom but also spent much of his ......
In this moving, revealing and highly readable memoir, Antony Penrose has composed a fitting tribute to his father, which also faces up to some of the more controversial aspects of Roland Penrose's life.
Anne Rosalind Geddes was born on 15 December 1940 in Ceylon where her father Eric managed a tea plantation. Before she was two-years-old it seemed that the Japanese might invade Ceylon and she and her mother Margaret left Colombo Harbour on board an Australian troop ship the morning before the Japanese bombed the harbour.