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BILLY FURY
Brit crooner Billy Fury was born Ronald
Wycherley in Liverpool in 1940. As a
child, he was stricken with rheumatic
fever, which had a lifelong impact
on his health. Despite this obstacle,
young Ron became enrapt with music, first on piano, then the guitar by
his early teens. He inked his first deal
with Decca Records in the late ‘50s,
performing and writing songs as “Billy
Fury.” The heartthrob landed scores
of British music awards and topped
the charts regularly. By the ’60s, he
added film and television to his growing acclaim. Credits include feature
films Play It Cool, I’ve Gotta Horse,
and That’ll Be the Day (with Ringo
Starr) and TV’s Shindig. At the close
of 1965, Fury moved to Parlophone
Records. By the early ’70s, he founded
his own label, Fury Records. In 1983,
after his long struggle with rheumatic
fever, he succumbed at the age of 42.
Rememb er him with “You’re Having
the Last Dance With Me,” from Classics and Collectibles: Billy Fury.
BUY: iTunes.com
GENRE: Pop
ARTIST: Billy Fury
SONG: You’re Having
the Last Dance With Me
ALBUM: Classics and
Collectibles: Billy Fury
MUSIC
BLACK
DIAMOND HEAVIES
Nashville-born Black Diamond Heavies
is the blues-punk duo of John Wesley Myers (keys) and Van Campbell
(drums). Myers, a.k.a. “James Leg,”
the son of a Baptist preacher, and Van
Campbell, the scion of Kentucky bourbon makers, jump-started the outfit
in the aughts and followed up with a
handful-plus of releases to date. The
gentlemen have created a deliciously
forbidden cocktail of deliverance
without salvation. “Bidin’ My Time,”
from their sophomore 2008 release A
Touch of Someone Else’s Class, produced by Dan Auerbach (The Black
Keys) is a must. Play it loud!
BUY: iTunes.com
GENRE: Rock
ARTIST: Black Diamond Heavies
SONG: Bidin’ My Time
ALBUM: A Touch of Someone
Else’s Class
HUFFINGTON
01.26.14
VLADIMIR COSMA
Master composer, pianist, and violinist Vladimir Cosma was born in
Bucharest, Romania, into a family of
pianists and conductors. As a young
man in the early ’60s, he relocated
to Paris to further his music studies.
After touring the globe as a concert
violinist, Cosma entered the world of
film scoring. Cosma credits a meeting
with Michel Legrand as the catalyst
of his destiny. Collaborations include
Jean-Jacques Beineix and Ridley
Scott. Credits include some four
dozen film scores, such as “Someone to Watch Over Me,” “The Dinner
Game” and “À Chacun son Enfer”;
a half-dozen operas; and a trove of
recordings. Accolades include two
Best Music awards by the French
Academy of Cinema for the 1981 film
Diva and the 1991 film Le Bal, as well
as the 2010 Prix Henri Langlois de
la Cinémathèque Française. Revisit
the star-lit “Promenade Sentimentale,” from the 1981 soundtrack Diva
(Bande Originale du Film).
BUY: iTunes.com
GENRE: Soundtrack
ARTIST: Vladimir Cosma
SONG: Promenade Sentimentale
ALBUM: Diva
(Bande Originale du Film)