Search results for ""Author Peter Benjaminson""

Few American superstar stories are richer, wilder, or more excessive than Rick James’s. He played in a band with Neil Young, spent years in jail, produced his first album (which was then picked up by Motown) with money from shadowy sources, crossed rock and funk to come up with one of the best-selling albums of the 1980s, became one of the biggest pop star of the era, turned a young white woman named Teena Marie into an R&B superstar, displayed an outrageously sex and drug-filled lifestyle, was tried and found guilty of assaulting and imprisoning a young woman, went on to record new music that was compared to the Beatles’ White Album, and ended his life as a punch line for Dave Chappelle. And along the way, he scored a large number of major hits, sold tens of millions of albums and became intimate with dozens of big-name celebrities. Rick James attempted to tell his own story—in two different books—but left out many incidents that showed what he was really like. Nobody has written the full truth about his life. Now, based on court records, newspaper archives, and extensive interviews with dozens of family members, band members, friends, and lovers, here is the definitive biography of Motown’s most controversial superstar.

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Re-release of the first book ever published in America about the legendary Motown Record Company, with a new foreword by legendary music journalist Greil Marcus!In January 1959 Berry Gordy borrowed $800 from his family and founded the Detroit-based record company that in less than a decade was to become the largest black-owned business in the United States. It also became one of the most productive and influential producers of popular music anywhere in the world, mainly by combining the best features of black and white American popular music.Even a short list of the recording and performing talent that Gordy recruited, trained and produced for his company is awesome: Diana Ross, The Supremes, Stevie Wonder, The Temptations, The Four Tops, Smokey Robinson, Marvin Gaye and Mary Wells.The Story of Motown is the story of Berry Gordy’s triumph over powerful, established financial interests, entrenched popular taste, bigotry and racism. By inventing a sound that appealed to whites as well as blacks, and that was immediately identifiable to an entire generation of listeners, Gordy demonstrated his genius as a producer; by breaking the exploitive practice of "cover" records, he helped black artists control their own music and share in the proceeds of hits; and by the sheer force of his will, courage, and intelligence, he demonstrated that a black man from the urban ghetto could aspire to and conquer the heights of traditional American business, including the movie business.Unfortunately, while doing all of this, he also found new ways to exploit his talented artists and eventually lost many of them to companies that paid them more.The Story of Motown is the story of the rise and fall of one of the most important cultural touchstones in American history

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Bill Haley ä the man who brought rock 'n' roll into the mainstream. His song Crazy Man Crazy was the first rock 'n' roll song to break the ÊBillboardÊ Top 20 in 1953 and was followed by his evergreen We're Gonna Rock Around the Clock the first song of its kind to hit #1. His success made him an idol not only in the US but throughout the world from Canada to the UK Europe Australia Japan New Zealand and beyond. Yet Haley is often overlooked in the story of rock 'n' roll overshadowed by others who followed him from sex symbol Elvis Presley to wild man Jerry Lee Lewis and forever-young Buddy Holly.ÞBut Haley's lack of visibility was in part his own doing: he had conflicted feelings about fame was extremely private suffered chronic alcoholism and troubled relationships with multiple wives which yielded ten children who he struggled to support. Though he managed to carry on a successful touring career his demons eventually eroded his health and in 1981 at the age of only 55 he passed away.ÞThis book is written by esteemed biographer Peter Benjaminson and Bill Haley Jr. Haley's son a musician himself who tours the world paying tribute to his father's music. Culled from interviews with insiders ä from ex-wives to the Comets recorded conversations with Haley Sr. official documents diaries and more this book not only charts the happenings of Haley's career but gives insight into the Haley behind the curtain and some of the other trials he faced from the dark side of the music business to ties with Mafia. Featuring a collection of rare photographs this book is a must-have for any serious rock 'n' roll fan.

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