Show name	Today
genre	NewsTalk
creator	Sylvester L. Weaver, Jr.
Presenter	Weekday editionMatt Lauer (1997–present)Ann Curry (2011–present)Natalie Morales (2011–present)Al Roker (1996–present)Savannah Guthrie (2011–present)Hoda Kotb (2007–present)Kathie Lee Gifford (2008–present)Other:Willard Scott (1980–present)Weekend ''Today'' Lester Holt (2003–present) Saturdays: Amy Robach (2007–present)Jenna Wolfe (2007–present)Bill Karins (2009–present)Janice Huff (1995–present)
narrated	Dick Dudley (former)Fred Facey (1984–2006)Les Marshak (current)
theme music composer	John Williams
country	United States
num episodes	17,694 (as of May 14, 2011)
executive producer	Jim Bell
location	NBC StudiosNew York, New York
runtime	240 minutes (4 hours)
network	NBC
picture format	480i (16:9 SDTV),1080i (HDTV)
first aired	January 14, 1952
last aired	present
status	Returning series
related	Early Today
website	http://www.todayshow.com
directed by	Joe Michaels
slogan	Your day is Today }}

''Today'' (also referred to as ''The Today Show'') is an American morning news and talk show airing every morning on NBC. Debuting on January 14, 1952, it was the first of its genre on American television and in the world. The show is also the fourth-longest running American television series. Originally a two-hour program on weekdays, it expanded to Sundays (currently one hour) in 1987 and Saturdays (two hours) in 1992. The weekday broadcast expanded to three hours in 2000, and a fourth hour launched in 2007.

''Today'''s dominance was virtually unchallenged by the other networks until the late 1980s, when it was overtaken by ABC's ''Good Morning America''. ''Today'' retook the Nielsen ratings lead the week of December 11, 1995, and has held onto that position every week since.

In 2002, ''Today'' was ranked #17 on TV Guide's 50 Greatest TV Shows of All Time.

Current cast

The first two hours of the show are anchored by Matt Lauer and Ann Curry, with broadcast meteorologist Al Roker, news anchor Natalie Morales, and Chief Legal Analyst Savannah Guthrie. Roker, Morales and Guthrie also serve as co-hosts of the third hour, while Hoda Kotb and Kathie Lee Gifford co-host the fourth hour. Lauer and Curry typically appear with Roker, Morales and Guthrie at the very beginning of the third hour, occasionally staying on if breaking news warrants it. Weekend editions are anchored by Lester Holt, Amy Robach (Saturdays) and Jenna Wolfe (Sundays), all three of whom frequently contribute to the weekday show.

Guthrie and Morales substitute for Curry, while Guthrie, Holt, MSNBC host Willie Geist and ''Meet the Press'' anchor David Gregory cover for Lauer. CNBC anchor Carl Quintanilla and Saturday co-host Robach occasionally host, mainly during holidays.

Guthrie is also the main fill-in for Morales at the news desk, while Geist, Kotb, MSNBC host Tamron Hall, Quintanilla, Robach and Wolfe have also appeared as news anchor. Various NBC News correspondents appear at the news desk at weekends.

Regular correspondents include Chief White House correspondent and NBC Political Director Chuck Todd, Mike Leonard, Capitol Hill correspondent Kelly O'Donnell, Bob Dotson, Jamie Gangel, and Peter Alexander. Dr. Nancy Snyderman is the network's chief medical correspondent. Jean Chatzky, editor-at-large for Money Magazine, provides weekly financial segments. Sarah Haines is the online correspondent. CNBC correspondents, including Burnett, Amanda Drury, Melissa Francis and Melissa Lee, regularly report from the New York Stock Exchange, while MSNBC and Weather Channel correspondents are frequent contributors. Jenna Bush Hager is a special correspondent for the program.

History

The show's first broadcast aired on January 14, 1952. It was the brainchild of Sylvester L. Weaver, Jr., who was then vice-president of NBC. Weaver was president of the company from 1953 to 1955, during which time ''Today's'' late-night companion ''The Tonight Show'' premiered. In pre-production, the show's proposed title was ''The Rise and Shine Revue''.

''Today'' was the first show of its genre when it signed on with original host Dave Garroway. The show blended national news headlines, interviews with newsmakers, lifestyle features, other light news and gimmicks (including the presence of the chimpanzee J. Fred Muggs as the show's mascot during the early years), and local station news updates. It has spawned several other shows of a similar type, including ABC's ''Good Morning America'', and CBS' ''The Early Show''. In other countries the format was copied – most notably in the United Kingdom with the BBC's ''Breakfast'' and ITV's ''Good Morning Britain''. In Canada with ''Canada AM'' on CTV and in Australia with the Sunrise (TV program) on the Seven Network.

When ''Today'' started, it was seen live only in the Eastern and Central time zones, broadcasting three hours per morning but seen for only two hours in each time zone. Since 1958, ''Today'' is tape-delayed for the different time zones. Partly to accommodate host Dave Garroway's declining health, the program ceased live broadcasts in the summer of 1958, opting instead to broadcast an edition taped the prior afternoon. The experiment, which drew criticism from many sides, ended when John Chancellor replaced Garroway in July 1961. For many years ''Today'' was a two-hour program, from 7:00 a.m. to 9:00 a.m. in all time zones except for Alaska, Hawaii and U.S. Virgin Islands, until NBC expanded it to three hours on October 2, 2000. A fourth hour was added on September 10, 2007. In some markets (such as Boston, Massachusetts, on WHDH-TV), the third and fourth hours of ''Today'' are aired on further tape delay.

During the first three hours, local affiliates are offered a five-minute window at :25 and :55 to insert a local newsbreak, although the show provides additional segments for those affiliates who do not do so.

When breaking news stories warrant, ''Today'' will broadcast a live West Coast edition. The live updates typically do not last longer than the 7:00 a.m. (PT) hour and once completed, will return to the taped East Coast feed. When the anchors welcome the viewers to the show, they will note the current time as being "Pacific Time" and continue to note it as such until the tape delay is started. In some instances, when NBC Special Reports occur during the ''Today'' timeslot, the show's anchors will assume hosting responsibilities.

For the most part, ''Today'' is aired live in the Eastern Time Zone in most markets while taped delayed in the remaining time zones.

Studio

The ''Today'' program first originated from the RCA Exhibition Hall on 49th Street in a space now occupied by the Christie's auction house, just down the block from the current studio. The first set placed a functional newsroom in the studio, which Garroway called "the nerve center of the world." The barrier between backstage and on-stage was virtually nonexistent. Garroway and the on-air staff often walked through the newsroom set. Glimpses of camera crew and technicians were a frequent occurrence, as were off-screen voices conversing with Garroway. Gradually, machines and personnel were placed behind the scenes to assemble the news and weather reports, and the newsroom was gone by 1955. In 1958, the show moved across the street to Studio 3K in the RCA Building, where it remained through the early 1960s.

On July 9, 1962, the show returned to a streetside studio in the space then occupied by the Florida Showcase. On September 13, 1965, ''Today'' moved back to the RCA Building. The network's news programming went to all-color broadcasts at that time, and NBC could not justify allocating four (then-expensive) color cameras to the Florida Showcase studio.

For the next twenty years, the show occupied a series of studios on the third, sixth, and eighth floors of NBC's headquarters; most notably Studio 3K in the 1970s, Studio 8G (adjacent to Studio 8H, home to ''Saturday Night Live'') in the late 1970s and early 1980s, and finally Studio 3B from 1983 to 1994. ''Today'' moved to the current streetside studio on June 13, 1994, providing a link to the show's 1950s origins.

Since the premiere of the 1990s set, the morning shows of each of the major broadcast and cable-news networks has moved streetside—including two of ''Today's'' Rockefeller Center neighbors, Fox News' ''Fox & Friends'' (at Avenue of the Americas) and CNN's ''American Morning''. (In summer 2005, CNN reversed the trend, abandoning its street-level studio and moving upstairs in the Time Warner Center at Columbus Circle.) ABC's ''Good Morning America'' broadcasts from Times Square Studios. In 2006, Studio 1A underwent a major renovation to prepare for 1080i high-definition broadcasting. After the departure of Katie Couric and while a new set was readied (summer of 2006), the program was broadcast from a temporary outdoor studio in Rockefeller Plaza, the same set NBC used at the Olympic Games since 2004 (Athens (2004), in Torino, Italy, (2006), and would be re-used for Beijing (2008). However, it would not be used during in Vancouver (2010), as their studio was the atrium at Grouse Mountain.) During the week of August 28, 2006, the show was moved to a temporary location outside of Studio 1A because MTV was converting the Outdoor Studio into their Red Carpet booth for the 2006 MTV Video Music Awards. A mock set was set up in ''Dateline'''s studio, also used during inclement weather. Also, they used a temporary outdoor set at 30 Rock,and MSNBC's ''Countdown with Keith Olbermann'' (which joined at Studio 1A in 30 Rock on October 22, 2007).

On September 13, 2006, ''Today'' moved into its brand new set. The new studio is divided into five different parts on the lower level. It includes the interview area, the couch area, the news desk, the performance/interview/extra space area, and home base, which is where the anchors start the show. A gigantic Panasonic 103-inch plasma monitor is often used for graphic display backgrounds. A kitchen set is located upstairs from the main studio. The blue background that is seen in the opening of the show in home base moves up and down to allow a view of the outside from the home base. New graphics were introduced, which underwent only minor changes until they were updated on September 8, 2009, with the introduction of the new ''Your day is Today'' slogan.

Current on-air staff

Anchors

''Today'' anchors started out as "Communicators." Creator Pat Weaver envisioned a person whose responsibilities would go beyond the bounds of traditional sit-down news anchors. The Communicator would interview, report, moderate dialogue and generally tie the show together into a coherent whole. Garroway and his successors have all followed that model, with little variation. Today, the hosts are expected to do much the same, and on any given day will talk with correspondents, newsmakers and lifestyle experts; introduce and close each half-hour; conduct special segments (such as cooking or fashion) and go on-assignment to host the program from different locations. Although the "Communicator" nomenclature has since dropped out of favor, the job remains largely the same. The principal anchors/hosts of the show include:

Matt Lauer, anchor (1997–present)

Ann Curry, anchor (2011–present)

Natalie Morales, news anchor (2011–present), third-hour anchor (2006–present)

Al Roker, weather anchor (1996–present), third-hour anchor (2006–present)

Savannah Guthrie, third-hour anchor (2011–present)

Hoda Kotb, fourth-hour anchor (2007–present)

Kathie Lee Gifford, fourth-hour anchor (2008–present)

Willard Scott, other (1980–present)

Former on-air staff

Anchors

Dave Garroway (1952–1961)

John Chancellor (1961–1962)

Hugh Downs (1962–1971)

Barbara Walters (1966–1976)

Frank McGee (1971–1974)

Jim Hartz (1974–1976)

Tom Brokaw (1976–1982)

Jane Pauley (1976–1989)

Bryant Gumbel (1982–1997)

Deborah Norville (1990–1991)

Katie Couric (1991–2006)

Meredith Vieira (2006–2011)

News anchors

From the show's inception, the idea of providing the latest news has been critical to the function of the program. In that vein, there has always been at least one person on set whose job it is to prepare and deliver newscasts. In 1952, that person was called ''Today'''s "news editor" or (informally) "news chief." In modern parlance, the term "newsreader" or "news anchor" is preferred. Under the two-hour format, four newscasts would be delivered, once every half-hour. Now there are only three newscasts, delivered at the top of each of the first three hours. Some anchors, including Jim Fleming, Lew Wood, Floyd Kalber and John Palmer, were seasoned journalists before joining the program. Others, including Ann Curry, have used the position to increase their journalistic acumen, at times leaving the newsdesk behind to venture into the field. News anchors have included the following:

Jim Fleming, news anchor (1952–1953)

Merrill Mueller, news anchor (1953)

Frank Blair, news anchor (1953–1975)

Lew Wood, news anchor (1975–1976)

Floyd Kalber, news anchor (1976–1979)

Tony Guida, news anchor (1979)

None (1979–1981; Brokaw and Pauley read headlines during this period.)

Chris Wallace, news anchor (1982)

John Palmer, news anchor (1982–1989)

Deborah Norville, news anchor (1989)

Steven Frazier, news anchor (1990)

Faith Daniels, news anchor (1990–1992)

Margaret Larson, news anchor (1992–1994)

Matt Lauer, news anchor (1994–1997)

Ann Curry, news anchor (1997–2011)

Weather anchors

For the program's first 25 years, weather reports were delivered by the host or newsreader. Dave Garroway would draw the day's weather fronts and areas of precipitation on a big chalkboard map of the United States, based on information gathered earlier in the morning from the U.S. Weather Bureau in Washington, D.C. Subsequent hosts John Chancellor and Hugh Downs dropped the chalkboard weather map concept and instead read a prepared weather summary over a still image of a weather map. When the show went to all-color broadcasts in 1965, weather maps were prepared and projected on a screen behind Frank Blair, who would deliver the forecast immediately after his news summaries. Following Blair's retirement in 1975, Lew Wood took over the newsreader and weather reporting duties. When Floyd Kalber became news anchor in 1976, Wood continued to do the weather (in addition to doing other news, sports, and commercials) until 1978. The weather is reported every half-hour during the program's first three hours, though since Al Roker took over as weather reporter, this is not always the case as an interview by Al at the beginning of the show may air in place of the national weather forecast at least once during the show at certain times during the week, leaving only the local weather inserts by NBC stations.

With the purchase of The Weather Channel by NBC in association with two private equity groups in 2008 and the July 2009 launch of pre-''Today'' program ''Wake Up with Al'' on that network, the forecast segment is now often augmented with reports and observations by Weather Channel staff at the site of a weather event or from the Weather Channel's suburban Atlanta headquarters.

Until the hiring of Bob Ryan in 1978, however, no one on the show had practical experience or academic credentials in meteorology.

''Today'' weather reporters have included:

Bob Ryan, weather anchor (1978–1980)

Willard Scott, weather anchor (1980–1996)

Al Roker, weather anchor (1996–present)

NBC affiliate stations are given a 30 second window to insert a local forecast into the program following the national weather report; Roker's outcue for the local break is ''"That's what's going on around the country, here’s what’s happening in your neck of the woods."'' (A national summary of temperatures from Roker is shown if no local forecast is inserted in the area, international viewers and to those watching outside Studio 1A in Rockefeller Plaza.)

The semi-retired Scott, who gained fame through his antics that included costumes and props, still occasionally appears as Roker's fill-in, and to continue his tradition of wishing "happy birthday" to centenarians. Scott's traditional local cue is ''"Here's what's happening in your world, even as we speak."''

Regular panelists

The job of "panelist" has no set definition. Panelist duties can range from conducting interviews to reporting on a number of topics in-studio and in the field. Regular panelists on the program include the following:

Jack Lescoulie (1952–1965)

Edwin Newman (1952–1984)

Barbara Walters (1966–1974 as ''de facto'' co-anchor; officially titled "co-host" in 1974)

Judith Crist (1964–1973)

Joe Garagiola (1967–1973, 1990–1992)

Gene Shalit (1973–2010)

Jane Pauley (2010-present)

''Today'' Girls

From 1952 to 1964, a notable member of the cast was a woman, often an entertainer, the ''Today'' Girl. Usually, she would discuss fashion and lifestyle, report the weather, cover lighter-fare stories or engage in verbal jousting with Garroway. Estelle Parsons was the first to hold the job, though her title at the time was "Women's Editor". Upon her departure in 1955, the ''Today'' Girl name was adopted. The last to hold the position, Barbara Walters, discussed the job in her autobiography ''Audition: A Memoir''. She wrote that the era was before the Women's Movement, and it was believed that nobody would take a woman seriously reporting "hard news"; Walters described the position as a "tea pourer". In 1966, Walters was promoted to co-host alongside Hugh Downs, and the ''Today'' Girl position was eliminated. Those who held the position were:

Estelle Parsons (official title: "Women's Editor") (1952–1955)

Lee Meriwether (1955–1956)

Helen O'Connell (1956–1958)

Betsy Palmer (1958)

Florence Henderson (1959–1960; co-hosted ''Later Today'' in 1999–2000)

Beryl Pfizer (1960–1961)

Robbin Bain (1961)

Louise King (1962)

Pat Fontaine (1963–1964)

Maureen O'Sullivan (1964)

Barbara Walters (1964–1966)

Controversies and transitions

Gumbel-"Memogate"

In 1989, Gumbel wrote a memo to ''Today Show'' executive producer Marty Ryan which was critical of other ''Today'' personalities. This memo was leaked to the press. In the memo, Gumbel commented that Willard Scott "holds the show hostage to his assortment of whims, wishes, birthdays and bad taste...This guy is killing us and no one's even trying to rein him in". He commented that Gene Shalit's movie reviews "are often late and his interviews aren't very good."

There was enough negative backlash in regard to Gumbel's comments toward Scott that Gumbel was shown making up with Scott on ''Today''.

Exit Jane Pauley, enter Deborah Norville

By 1989, Deborah Norville replaced John Palmer at the ''Today'' newsdesk and he assumed her previous role on ''Sunrise''. She also began substituting for Tom Brokaw on ''NBC Nightly News''. Shortly after Norville's appointment as ''Today'''s news anchor, the decision was made to feature Norville as an unofficial third host. Whereas Palmer had read the news from a desk separate from where Gumbel and Pauley sat, Norville was seated alongside the program's hosts at the opening and closing of every show. Before long, gossip columns and media observers predicted that NBC would remove Jane Pauley from the program and replace her with Norville in an effort to improve the program's recently declining viewership by young women, the demographic most coveted by morning shows. During this period ''Saturday Night Live'' featured a skit titled "All About Deborah Norville" (a takeoff on the classic film ''All About Eve''), which depicted Norville as ruthlessly scheming to take Pauley's place as ''Today'' co-host.

By late 1989, it was announced that 13-year veteran Pauley would leave ''Today'' at the end of the year. NBC, as expected, announced that Norville would become co-host. An emotional Norville hugged Pauley on the air after the announcement was made, and many at NBC hoped the negative press generated by Norville's increased presence on the program would end. It did not. Prior to the announcement of Pauley's departure, much of the criticism had focused on Norville's youth and beauty, with many branding her "the other woman" and a "home wrecker," in a reference to what some felt seemed like her intent on "breaking up" the television marriage of Gumbel and Pauley.

Negative press only heightened after the announcement of Pauley's resignation, and Norville was put under a gag order by NBC brass which prevented her from defending herself from the widespread and erroneous reports that she somehow orchestrated her rise on ''Today''. In January 1990, the new anchor team of Bryant Gumbel and Deborah Norville, minus Jane Pauley, debuted with disastrous results. Ratings for the program began to plummet. Critics felt that Gumbel and Norville lacked chemistry and many loyal viewers began turning to rival ABC's ''Good Morning America'' (''GMA'').

By the end of 1990, ''Today'', the longtime dominant program, was officially the second place morning show behind ''GMA,'' and most of the blame was pinned on Norville. By the outbreak of the Persian Gulf War in 1991, Norville saw her role as co-host continually minimized. ''Today'' aired special editions of the program called ''America at War'', with Gumbel anchoring most of the show alone. It was not uncommon for Norville not to even make an appearance until the two hour show's second half hour. In addition, she was directed not to initiate conversation on the show and only speak when asked a question by Gumbel. Norville left the show for maternity leave in February 1991. It was announced that Katie Couric would substitute co-host during Norville's absence. Ratings for the program rose immediately following Norville's departure and Couric's arrival.

Midway though her maternity leave, Norville was interviewed by ''People''. In the story, she avoided conversation about her recent trouble on ''Today'', and instead focused on her newborn baby boy. She was photographed breastfeeding her son, a seemingly innocuous event, but NBC management was said to be greatly displeased by this, believing the photo to be in poor taste. By April 1991, in light of improved ratings on ''Today'' and NBC's displeasure at the ''People'' photograph, it was announced that Norville would not return to ''Today'' and that Katie Couric had been named the program's co-host. Norville, it was disclosed, would continue to be paid in accordance with her contract, although she would no longer appear on any NBC News programs.

Rumored Couric-Lauer feud

Beginning in 2003 there were rumors that Katie Couric and Matt Lauer were in the midst of a feud. Reports say that this was due to Katie Couric's prominence, that she was generally perceived as handling the news program, and that she was the only person who could guarantee high ratings for a morning news program.

Couric leaves, Vieira enters

On Wednesday April 5, 2006, Katie Couric announced on her fifteenth anniversary as co-host of ''Today'' that she would leave ''Today'' and NBC News at the end of May to become the new anchor and managing editor of the ''CBS Evening News''. Katie Couric's final broadcast was aired on May 31, 2006. The day's show was dedicated to Couric's fifteen years as one of the show's co-hosts, and celebrated her move to the anchor chair at CBS, where she also became a correspondent for the network's Sunday night program ''60 Minutes''. Couric said during the show, "It's been a pleasure hosting this program, and thank you for fifteen great years." A special video presentation was broadcast, recapping her best moments and news stories on Today during her fifteen years.

The day after Couric's announcement, Meredith Vieira, then a host of ABC's ''The View'' announced on that show that she would take over as Lauer's co-anchor in September. Lauer and Vieira began co-hosting together on September 13, 2006.

On June 1, 2006 (the day after Couric's departure), NBC News announced that for the summer of 2006 ''Today'' would move to a temporary outdoor studio as Studio 1A was going through renovations to prepare for high-definition. On that same day, NBC News launched a new advertisement promoting Vieira's arrival. For the summer of 2006, Couric's anchor seat was filled with various hosts, consisting of Curry, Morales and Campbell Brown (all of whom were considered candidates to replace Couric), until Vieira took over that fall.

Lauer's contract has been secured for the future years. He has signed through 2012 and has received a sizable salary increase.

In March 2010, Vieira signed a contract that would keep her with the program until at least September 2011, though reports state that she will not renew her contract when it expires at that time. Vieira announced on May 9, 2011 that she would depart as co-host in the following month, but would remain at NBC News in an as-yet undetermined role.

Vieira exits, Curry takes over

After announcing her resignation, Vieira departed the program on June 8th, 2011. Former news anchor Ann Curry replaced her, appearing alongside Matt Lauer as co-host. Correspondent Natalie Morales replaced Curry as news anchor, with Al Roker remaining as the weather anchor. Savannah Guthrie joins Morales and Roker as co-host of the third, 9am hour.

Expansion

''Early Today'' and ''Later Today''

The first brand extension was created in 1982. ''Early Today'' was conceived as a lead-in for ''Today''. It even had the same anchors, Bryant Gumbel and Jane Pauley. The program was conceived so local stations could carry the full hour or one of the two half-hours. After a year NBC replaced it with ''NBC News at Sunrise'', anchored by Connie Chung.

In 1999, NBC cancelled ''Sunrise'' and created two brand extensions for ''Today''. One was ''Early Today'' (not to be confused with the earlier incarnation); the program originally was produced by CNBC and focused on business and financial news before switching to general news under the same production staff as ''MSNBC First Look''; it continues to air on many NBC affiliates. Also in the of fall 1999, ''Later Today'', a talk show that was intended to air immediately following the then two-hour ''Today'', was launched with hosts Jodi Applegate, Florence Henderson and Asha Blake. Sagging ratings for that show caused its cancellation in August 2000; it was replaced two months later by the current third hour of ''Today''.

Fourth hour

On September 10, 2007, NBC expanded the show length to four hours, as announced on January 17, 2007 at its press tour sessions. The fourth hour was originally hosted by Curry, Morales, and Hoda Kotb; Kathie Lee Gifford replaced Curry and Morales on April 7, 2008. Without news segments or input from the earlier hosts, the fourth hour operates virtually as a standalone talk show, with an opening "host chat" segment reminiscent of the one popularized by Gifford and Regis Philbin on ''Live with Regis and Kathie Lee'', as well as features focusing on entertainment, fashion and other topics intended to draw in female viewers.

NBC had aired the daytime soap opera ''Passions'' from 1999 to 2007 but dropped it to make room on its schedule for the extended version of ''Today''. The fourth hour of ''Today'' competes with ABC's ''The View'' and CBS's ''The Price Is Right'' in most markets in the Central and Pacific time zones, but most Eastern time stations air it live one hour before those programs. Not all NBC affiliates carry the new hour, including Hearst-owned affiliates KCRA-TV, Sacramento, California; KSBW in Salinas, California; WBAL-TV, Baltimore, Maryland; and WYFF, Greenville, South Carolina.

Today in Two Minutes

On May 3, 2010, the show launched a new online-only feature called "Today in Two Minutes," anchored by ''Today'' News Anchor Natalie Morales. The video provides brief updates on the day's weather, news headlines and other stories, while giving a look ahead to segments appearing later in the morning on the television broadcast. It appears on the program's website each weekday morning. While it shares a name with a news segment on ''Today'' during Dave Garroway's tenure, the current "Today in Two Minutes" otherwise bears little resemblance to its 1952 forebear.

Music

''Today Show'' host Dave Garroway selected Les Brown's ''Sentimental Journey'' as the program's very first theme, used during the entire Garroway era from 1952 to 1961. In 1962, when Hugh Downs became host, Django Reinhardt's "Melodie au Crepuscule" was chosen as the new theme; it was replaced in 1963 by ''Misty'', an instrumental ballad composed by Erroll Garner and performed by Bobby Hackett and John B. Seng.

''Misty'' served as ''Today’s'' theme until 1971, when NBC News correspondent Frank McGee joined the show. Composer Ray Ellis penned an entirely new instrumental theme entitled "This is Today", a jazzy, up-tempo piece that served as the program's main theme until 1978. Because ''This is Today'' closely resembled the theme ''Day by Day'' from the musical ''Godspell'', Ellis was successfully sued for copyright infringement and ''This is Today'' was revised. The second version of ''This is Today'' incorporated the familiar NBC chime signature (G-E-C) in a bright, appropriately sunny arrangement that was used until 1981, at the close of the Tom Brokaw-Jane Pauley era. The G-E-C signature was also used throughout the program to introduce and conclude segments, usually in combination with the familiar ''Today Show'' sunburst.

By 1982, ''Today'' had a new anchor, Bryant Gumbel, and a new version of Ellis' ''This is Today'' theme, a looser, more relaxed arrangement that continued to feature the NBC chimes in its melody. A shorter arrangement of ''This is Today'' was used for the show open (featuring a rotating globe and ''Today'' sunburst) from 1983 to 1985. The main theme was used until 1985, and due to its popularity with viewers was resurrected as the show's secondary theme in January 1993. The 1982 theme now serves as the program's official "anniversary" music, used to open and close retrospective segments as ''Today'' approaches its 60th anniversary.

1985 saw the end of the synthesizer era at NBC as composer John Williams wrote a series of themes for all NBC News programs, with a cut entitled ''The Mission'' serving as the principal theme for ''NBC Nightly News with Tom Brokaw''. Williams also composed two themes for ''Today'': an opening fanfare for the program that was derived from the opening of ''The Mission''; and a two-minute closing theme for the show entitled ''Scherzo for Today'', a dramatic arrangement that made heavy use of strings and flutes. In the late 1980s, ''Scherzo'' was played in its entirety multiple times daily during the weather scrolls that ran during local commercial breaks; however, most NBC affiliates preempted these segments with advertising. The new ''Today'' themes—used in tandem with the show's new opening sequence featuring the Statue of Liberty and a new living room studio set—gave the program a distinctly modern look and sound beginning in September 1985. A series of Williams-penned bumpers featuring the ''Mission'' signature were also used to open and close segments.

''Scherzo for Today'' was used as the program's closing theme until 1990, and the ''Mission'' bumpers were used until 1993. (One of them could be heard as a station break lead-in on NBC's ''Meet The Press'' until 2004.) Meanwhile, Williams' opening fanfare has opened the program ever since its 1985 introduction, with two brief interruptions; new opening themes were briefly introduced and quickly discarded in the summer of 1994 (to mark the debut of Studio 1A) and in 2004. The fanfare was iconically accompanied by Fred Facey announcing "From NBC News, this is ''Today''... with (anchor) and (anchor)." Although Facey died in April 2003, His introduction of the Couric/Lauer team was used for the duration of Couric's era (except for special editions requiring special introductions). ''Weekend Today'' announcer Les Marshak became the new voice of the weekday program on September 13, 2006.

Currently, a lighter theme employing the NBC chimes is used to open the show's 7:30 through 9:30 half-hour segments, and also used as a closing theme.

''Weekend Today''

The Sunday edition of ''Today'' debuted on September 20, 1987. Five years later on August 1, 1992, the Saturday edition debuted expanding the ''Today'' schedule to seven days a week. The Sunday broadcast airs for one hour (originally 90 minutes, until the expansion of ''Meet the Press'' to a full hour in 1992), and the Saturday broadcast airs for two hours.

The weekend broadcasts continue the ''Today'' tradition of covering breaking news, interviewing newsmakers, reporting on a variety of popular-culture and human-interest stories, covering health and finance issues and presenting the latest weather reports. NBC feeds the Saturday edition from 7:00 a.m. to 9:00 a.m. and the Sunday edition from 8:00 a.m to 9:00 a.m. (both Eastern Time), although many of the network's affiliates air local newscasts in those time slots and carry the network broadcast later in the morning. NBC's New York, Chicago, San Francisco and Los Angeles owned and operated stations air ''Weekend Today'' simultaneously (but not live) at 9:00 a.m ET, 8:00 a.m. CT and 6:00 am PT.

Weekend editions are tailored to the priorities and interests of weekend viewers—offering special series such as "''Saturday Today'' on the Plaza", featuring live performances by the biggest names in music and Broadway outside the studio throughout the summer.

Current on-air staff

Anchors

Lester Holt, weekend anchor (2003–present)

Amy Robach, Saturday weekend anchor (2007–present)

Jenna Wolfe, Sunday weekend anchor (2007–present)

Bill Karins, Saturday weekend weather anchor (2009–present)

Janice Huff, Sunday weekend weather anchor (1995–present)

Former on-air staff

Anchors

''Sunday Today'' anchors included:

Boyd Matson, weekend anchor (1987–1988)

Maria Shriver, weekend anchor (1987–1990)

Garrick Utley, news anchor (1987–1988) weekend anchor (1988–1992)

Al Roker, weekend anchor (1989–1992)

Katie Couric, weekend anchor (1990–1991)

Mary Alice Williams, weekend anchor (1991–1992)

''Weekend Today'' anchors included:

Scott Simon, weekend anchor (1992–1993)

Jackie Nespral, weekend anchor (1992–1995)

Mike Schneider, weekend anchor (1993–1995)

Giselle Fernandez, weekend anchor (1995–1996)

Jack Ford, weekend anchor (1995–1999)

Carol Martin, weekend anchor (1996)

Jodi Applegate, weekend anchor (1996–1999)

Soledad O'Brien, weekend anchor (1999–2003)

David Bloom, weekend anchor (1999–2003)

Campbell Brown, weekend anchor (2003–2007)

Special editions

Ratings

Week of April 25, 2011/ Day of April 29, 2011 (Wedding of Prince William and Catherine Middleton)

''Today'': 6,424,000/ 9,628,000 viewers

''Good Morning America'': 5,735,000/ 8,650,000 viewers

''The Early Show'': 2,650,000/ unknown viewers

This week was Today's best week since August 11, 2008, which was week of the Beijing Olympics. Also, April 29, was the best single day rating since November 8, 2000, which was the day after the 2000 presidential election.

Week of April 11, 2011

''Today'': 5,662,000 viewers

''Good Morning America'': 4,812,000 viewers

''The Early Show'': 2,659,000 viewers

This week was Today's 800th week at the number one spot. At ABC, Good Morning America compared to last year has closed the gap by 35%, the smallest gap since 2006-2007. However NBC is calling this week the widest margin in six weeks.

Week of January 4, 2009: ''Today'' (8am) averaged 5,998,000 millon viewers, ''Today II'' (9:00am) averaged 4,447,000 total viewers and a 1.4 rating in the A25-54 demo. It was the hour's best ratings since the week of August 11, 2008. ''Today III'' (10:00am) averaged 2,412,000 total viewers and a .8 rating in the demo. It was the most total viewers for the program since the week of December 31, 2007.

Week of October 12, 2008

''Today'': 4,910,000 viewers

''Good Morning America'': 4,250,000 viewers

''The Early Show'': 2,660,000 viewers

Only the first two hours of ''Today'' are counted above. For the sake of Nielsen ratings (but not on-air), NBC refers to the third and fourth hours as ''Today II'' and ''Today III'', respectively. For the week above, ''Today II'' drew 2.9 million viewers and ''Today III''' delivered 1.7 million.

Week of June 30, 2008

''Today'': 4,900,000 viewers

''Good Morning America'': 3,800,000 viewers

''The Early Show'': 2,400,000 viewers

Week of September 11, 2006

''Today:'' 6,320,000 viewers

''Good Morning America'': 4,730,000

''The Early Show'': 2,800,000

International broadcasts

NBC News programming is shown daily on the 24 hour news network Orbit News in Europe and the Middle East. This includes a live broadcast of ''Today''.

In Australia, ''NBC Today'' (titled as such locally to avoid confusion with the local Nine Network program of the same name) airs from 4am Tuesday to Saturday on the Seven Network. Sunday's edition is broadcast at 5:00am on Mondays, following ''Meet The Press''. The program is condensed into a 90 minute broadcast (except for Saturday mornings where the full 2-hour edition is shown), with no local news inserted. However, a news ticker appears at the bottom of the screen, containing National headlines, as well as upcoming information for the Sunrise breakfast show. A national weather map of Australia is inserted during cut-aways to local affiliates for weather. ''Today'' is pre-empted by paid programming on regional Seven affiliates Prime7 and GWN7. The top three U.S. breakfast programs air simultaneously on Australian television with the ''CBS Early Show'' airing on Network Ten and ''Good Morning America'' on the Nine Network.

''Today'' is also shown in the Philippines on Talk TV with the weekday editions which airs at 7.00 pm local time on Mondays to Fridays. Weekend Today airs Saturdays at 7:00pm and Sundays at 8:00 pm local time.

In the United Kingdom and across Europe, ''Today'' originally aired on Sky News between 1989 and 1993, and from 1993 and 1998 on NBC Europe. The show was initially aired live in the afternoons until 1995, when it was delayed until the next morning.

In Australia, ''NBC Today'' is shown on 7mate at 9am as a two-hour condensed edition.

See also

"Where in the World is Matt Lauer?"

Today with Kathie Lee and Hoda

References

External links

''“Today”'' official site

''“The Today Show viewers home page and forum”'' The Today Show viewers home page and forum

''Today'' at the Internet Movie Database

''Weekend Today'' official site

“Today” Music History page

''“Today”'' show book with quotes from show staff & backstage personnel on parenting

Category:1952 television series debuts Category:1950s American television series Category:1960s American television series Category:1970s American television series Category:1980s American television series Category:1990s American television series Category:2000s American television series Category:2010s American television series Category:American news television series Category:Black-and-white television programs Category:English-language television series Category:NBC network shows Category:NBC News

da:Today (NBC-program) de:Today (NBC) fa:امروز (برنامه کانال ان‌بی‌سی) fr:Today (NBC) id:Today (program berita NBC) ja:トゥデイ (テレビ番組) pl:Today (program telewizyjny NBC) pt:Today (programa de TV) sh:The Today Show fi:Today (NBC) sv:The Today Show zh:今天 (NBC)

Name	Taylor Swift
Background	solo_singer
Birth name	Taylor Alison Swift
Birth date	December 13, 1989
Birth place	Reading, Pennsylvania, U.S.
Instrument	Vocals, guitar, ganjo, piano, ukulele
Genre	Country pop, pop, country, dance-pop
Occupation	Singer-songwriter, musician, record producer, actress
Years active	2006–present
Label	Big Machine
Associated acts	Nathan Chapman, Liz Rose
Website	150pxTaylor Swift's signature }}

Taylor Alison Swift (born December 13, 1989) is an American country pop singer-songwriter, musician and actress.

In 2006, she released her debut single "Tim McGraw", then her self-titled debut album, which was subsequently certified multi-platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America. In November 2008, Swift released her second album, ''Fearless'', and the recording earned Swift four Grammy Awards, including the Album of the Year, at the 52nd Grammy Awards. ''Fearless'' and ''Taylor Swift'' finished 2008 at number-three and number-six respectively, with sales of 2.1 and 1.5 million. ''Fearless'' topped the ''Billboard'' 200 for 11 non-consecutive weeks. Swift was named ''Artist of the Year'' by ''Billboard'' Magazine in 2009. Swift released her third album ''Speak Now'' on October 25, 2010, which sold 1,047,000 copies in its first week.

In 2008, her albums sold a combined four million copies, making her the best-selling musician of the year in the United States, according to Nielsen SoundScan. ''Forbes'' ranked Swift 2009's 69th-most powerful celebrity with earnings of $18 million, 2010's 12th-most powerful celebrity with earnings of $45 million and 2011's 7th-most powerful celebrity with earnings of $45 million, too. Swift was ranked the 38th Best Artist of the 2000s by ''Billboard''. In January 2010 Nielsen SoundScan listed Swift as the most successful digital artist in music history with over 34.3 million digital tracks sold. On June 2011, renowned site The Boot named Swift and Carrie Underwood ''The Country Royalty'', as they were the only female country artists to be ranked on ''Rolling Stone'' Queens of Pop list. , she has sold over 20 million albums and 34.3 million singles worldwide. She has been listed in the 2012 ''Guinness Book Of World Records'' as the Fastest Selling Digital Album by a Female Artist for her album ''Speak Now'', and Most Simultaneous U.S. Hot 100 Hits by a Female Artist. In 2011, ''Billboard'' named her woman of the year.

Early life

Swift was born on December 13, 1989, in Reading, Pennsylvania, and raised in Wyomissing, Pennsylvania. She is the daughter of Andrea Gardner (née Finlay), a homemaker who previously worked in finance, and Scott Kingsley Swift, a stockbroker. Her maternal grandmother, Marjorie Finlay (née Moehlenkamp), was an opera singer. Swift has a younger brother, Austin. She grew up on a Christmas-tree farm.

When Swift was in fourth grade, she won a national poetry contest with a three-page poem, "Monster in My Closet". At the age of ten, a computer repairman showed her how to play three chords on a guitar, sparking her interest in learning the instrument. Afterwards, Swift wrote her first song, "Lucky You". When Swift was 12, she devoted an entire summer to writing a 350-page novel, which remains unpublished. She began writing songs regularly and used it as an outlet to help her with her pain from not fitting in at school. Swift was a victim of bullying, and spent her time writing songs to express her emotions. She also started performing at local karaoke contests, festivals, and fairs.

Swift began to regularly visit Nashville, Tennessee, and work with local songwriters. When she was 14, her family relocated to Nashville. Her first major show was a well-received performance at the Bloomsburg Fair. In Tennessee, Swift attended Hendersonville High School, but was subsequently homeschooled for her junior and senior years. In 2008, she earned her high school diploma.

Swift's greatest musical influence is Shania Twain. Her other influences include LeAnn Rimes, Tina Turner, Dolly Parton, and Swift's grandmother. Although her grandmother was a professional opera singer, Swift's tastes always leaned more toward country music. In her younger years, she developed a love for Patsy Cline and Dolly Parton. She also credits the Dixie Chicks for demonstrating the impact that one can have by "stretching boundaries".

Music career

2000–2005: musical beginnings

At age 11, Swift made her first trip to Nashville, hoping to obtain a record deal by distributing a demo tape of her singing with karaoke songs. She gave a copy to every label in town, but was rejected. After Swift returned to Pennsylvania, she was asked to sing at the US Open tennis tournament, where her rendition of the national anthem received much attention.

When Swift was 15, she rejected RCA Records because the company wanted to keep her on an artist development deal. After performing at Nashville's songwriters' venue, The Bluebird Café, she caught the attention of Scott Borchetta, who signed her to his newly formed record label, Big Machine Records. At age 14, she became the youngest staff songwriter ever hired by the Sony/ATV Tree publishing house.

2006–2008: ''Taylor Swift''

Swift released her debut single, "Tim McGraw", in mid-2006, reaching No.6 on ''Billboard'' magazine's Hot Country Songs chart. Her self-titled debut album was later released on October 24, 2006. Debuting high on the ''Billboard'' 200, the album sold 39,000 copies during its first week. It peaked at No.1 on the Billboard Top Country Albums and No.5 on the ''Billboard'' 200. Her debut album spent eight consecutive weeks at the top of the Top Country Albums charts and remained at the top for 24 out of 91 weeks. The only other country artists this decade to achieve the number-one sales position for 20 weeks or more are The Dixie Chicks and Carrie Underwood. The music video for "Tim McGraw" won Swift an award for Breakthrough Video of the Year at the 2007 CMT Music Awards. Her pursuit of country music stardom was the subject of "GAC Short Cuts", a part-documentary, part-music-video series airing since the summer of 2006. On May 15, 2007, Swift performed "Tim McGraw" at the Academy of Country Music Awards. Swift has been an opening act for Tim McGraw and Faith Hill on their Soul2Soul 2007 tour. She has opened in the past for George Strait, Brad Paisley and Rascal Flatts as well. The second single from the ''Taylor Swift'' album, "Teardrops on My Guitar", was released February 24, 2007. In mid-2007, the song peaked at No.2 on Billboard's Hot Country Songs chart and No.33 on the ''Billboard'' Hot 100. The song was re-released with a pop remix that brought "Teardrops on My Guitar" to No.13 on the Hot 100 and No.11 on the Pop 100. In October 2007, Swift was awarded Songwriter/Artist of the Year by the Nashville Songwriters Assn. Intl., making her the youngest artist ever to win the award. Her third song off her debut album, "Our Song" spent six weeks at No.1 on the Country charts, peaked at No.16 on the ''Billboard'' Hot 100, and rose to No.24 on the ''Billboard'' Pop 100. Swift recorded a holiday album, ''Sounds of the Season: The Taylor Swift Holiday Collection,'' which was released exclusively at Target in late 2007. Swift was nominated for a 2008 Grammy Award in the category of Best New Artist, but lost to Amy Winehouse. Swift's successful single, "Picture to Burn", was the fourth single from her debut album. The song debuted and soon peaked at No.3 on the Billboard Country chart in spring 2008. left|upright|thumb|Swift performing at Yahoo HQ in 2007 "Should've Said No" became Swift's second No.1 single. In Summer 2008, Swift released ''Beautiful Eyes'', an EP sold exclusively at Wal-Mart. In its first week of release, the album sold 45,000 copies, debuting at No.1 on ''Billboard'''s Top Country Albums chart and No.9 on the ''Billboard'' 200. With her self-titled debut album sitting at No.2 during the same week, Swift became the first artist since 1997 to hold the Top 2 positions of the Top Country Albums chart. In October 2008, Swift performed a duet with best selling rock band Def Leppard in a taped show in Nashville, Tennessee, and their collaboration was up for both Performance of the Year and Wide Open Country Video of the Year at the CMT Music Awards in 2009.

2008–2010: ''Fearless'' and MTV VMA incident

Swift's second studio album, ''Fearless'', was released in the United States on November 11, 2008. The album debuted at No.1 on the ''Billboard'' 200 Album Chart. Its sales of 592,304 were the highest debut of any country artist in 2008. This is also the largest opening U.S. sales week in 2008 by a female artist in all genres of music, and the fourth biggest overall behind Lil Wayne, AC/DC and Coldplay. Its lead single "Love Story" became a hit on both the country and pop charts. During the first week of release, more than 129,000 of Swift's sales were sold digitally. This gives Swift the best online start for any country album in history. It also makes Swift the fourth biggest week for a digital album since Nielsen SoundScan began tracking them in 2004. Through its eighth week of release, ''Fearless'' has sold more than 338,467 downloads, making it the bestselling country album in digital history. In second place is Swift's debut ''Taylor Swift'' with sales of 236,046 downloads as of April 18, 2009. In its debut week, seven songs in total on ''Fearless'' were charted on ''Billboard'' Hot 100, tying Swift with Miley Cyrus for the most by a female artist in a single week. With "White Horse" charted at #13, this gave Swift her sixth top 20 debut of 2008, a calendar year record for any artist in the history of the ''Billboard'' Hot 100. Of the 13 tracks on ''Fearless'', 11 have already spent time on the Hot 100. "Change", a song from the album, was selected as part of a soundtrack supporting Team USA's efforts in the 2008 Summer Olympics. The song was also featured as part of the soundtrack of NBC's broadcast package of the Olympics. The lead single from the album, "Love Story", was released on September 12, 2008. The Fearless album includes the "Love Story" music video which is based on ''Romeo and Juliet''. The song has reached No.2 on iTunes Store Top Downloaded Songs and No.4 on the ''Billboard'' Hot 100. Fifteen weeks after being added to pop radio, "Love Story" also became the first country crossover recording to hit number one on the Nielsen BDS CHR/Top 40 chart in the 16-year-history of the list, as well as number one on the Mediabase Top 40 Chart. The second single from ''Fearless'', "White Horse", was released on December 8, 2008. The music video for the song premiered on CMT on February 7, 2009. Though it missed the No.1 spot on Billboard's Hot Country Songs as of the week April 11, 2009, "White Horse" claimed the No.1 spot atop the USA Today/Country Aircheck chart (powered by Mediabase) in that week. "Forever & Always", another song from the album, was based on Swift's relationship with singer Joe Jonas. She was the first artist in the history of Nielsen SoundScan to have two different albums in the Top 10 on the year end album chart. It also was the first album by a female artist in country music history to log eight weeks at No.1 on The ''Billboard'' 200. In mid-January 2009, Swift became the first country artist to top the 2 million mark in paid downloads with three different songs. Swift is ''Billboard'''s Top Country Artist and Hot Country Songwriter of 2008; she is also country music's best-selling artist of 2008. Swift ranked seventh on Nielsen SoundScan Canada's top-10 selling artists across all genres in 2008. ''Fearless'' and ''Taylor Swift'' took the No.1 and No.2 slots on 2008 Year-End Canadian Country Albums Chart. Swift sang the Star-Spangled Banner at game three of the World Series in Philadelphia on October 25, 2008. In January 2009, Swift announced her North American Fearless Tour planned for 52 cities in 38 states and provinces in the US and Canada over the span of 6 months. The tour kicked off April 23 in Evansville, Indiana. In the same month, Swift made her first musical guest appearance on ''Saturday Night Live''. On February 8, 2009, Swift performed her song "Fifteen" with Miley Cyrus at the 51st Grammy Awards. As of the week ending February 8, 2009, Swift's single "Love Story" became the country song with the most paid downloads in history. Since the release of Swift's second album, ''Fearless'', she has released one new song "Crazier" for the soundtrack of the feature film ''Hannah Montana: The Movie''. At the 44th Annual Academy of Country Music Awards, Swift picked up Album of the Year honors as a performer and producer for ''Fearless''. Swift is the youngest artist in history to win the ACM ''Album of the Year'' award. The Academy lauded her for career achievements including selling more albums in 2008 than any other artist in any genre of music, the breakthrough success of her debut album, and the worldwide crossover success of her No.1 single "Love Story". The Academy also cited Swift's contribution to helping country music attract a younger audience. As of late April 2009, Swift has sold more than 14 million downloads, as well as three Gold Mobile Ringtones. On April 28, 2009, Swift gave a free, private concert to students at Bishop Ireton High School, a small Catholic school in Alexandria, Virginia after the school won a national "TXT 2 WIN" contest from Verizon Wireless. The students sent over 19,000 text messages to Verizon during a roughly one month long contest. Swift played for about an hour during the school's field day, an annual day-long recess with games and activities. On October 8, 2009 Swift's official website announced that her sold-out Fearless Tour would return to North America for 37 additional dates in 2010.

Scheduled to perform on September 13, 2009, Swift attended the 2009 MTV Video Music Awards. This was her first VMA performance, where she became the first country music artist to win an MTV Video Music Award. During the show, as Swift was on stage accepting the award for Best Female Video for "You Belong with Me," singer/rapper Kanye West came on stage and took the microphone from Swift, saying that Beyoncé's video for "Single Ladies (Put a Ring on It)", nominated for the same award, was "one of the best videos of all time," an action that caused the many audience members to boo West. He handed the microphone back to a stunned and reportedly upset Swift, who did not finish her acceptance speech. When Beyoncé later won the award for Best Video of the Year for "Single Ladies (Put a Ring on It)", she called Swift up on stage so that she could finish her acceptance speech. Following the awards show, West apologized for his verbal outburst in a blog entry (which was subsequently removed). He was criticized by various celebrities for the outburst, and even by President Barack Obama who called West a "jackass" in an "off the record" comment. He later posted a second apology on his blog and made his first public apology one day after the incident on the debut episode of ''The Jay Leno Show''. On September 15, 2009, Swift talked about the matter on ''The View'', where she said she was at first excited to see West on stage and then disappointed once he acted out. She said West had not spoken to her following the incident. Following her appearance on ''The View'', West contacted her to apologize personally; Swift said she accepted his apology. However, on November 8, 2010, in an interview with a Minnesota radio station, West seemed to recant a bit of his past apologies by attempting to describe the act at the 2009 awards show as "selfless" and downgrade the perception of disrespect it created. Swift would later perform a song at the 2010 VMA called "Innocent" which is about the incident and in the song she absolves West of his actions. On November 11, 2009, Swift became the youngest artist ever to win the Country Music Association Award for Entertainer of the year, and is one of only six women to win the Country Music Association's highest honor. On the chart week of November 14, 2009, Swift set a record for the most songs on the ''Billboard'' Hot 100 by a female artist at the same time with eight singles from the re-release of her 2008 album ''Fearless'' namely five debut new songs in the top 30: "Jump Then Fall" at #10, "Untouchable" at #19, "The Other Side of the Door" at #22, "Superstar" at No.27 and "Come in With the Rain" at No.30 and three already-charted songs that were released as singles—"You Belong with Me" (#14), "Forever & Always" which re-entered the chart at #34, and "Fifteen" (#46). In addition, the song "Two Is Better Than One" by Boys Like Girls which features Swift, debuted at No.80 in the same issue. This gives Swift six debuts in one week, the biggest number of debuts by any female artist of all time. It also lifts the number of her simultaneously-charting songs to nine, setting another record for the biggest number of charting songs by the same female artist in the same week. When "Fifteen" reached No.38 on the chart week of November 21, 2009, Swift became the female artist with the most Top 40 singles this decade, surpassing Beyoncé. "Fifteen" became Swift's twentieth Top 40 single overall. "Two Is Better Than One" by Boys Like Girls and John Mayer's "Half of My Heart" both featured Swift, peaking at No.40 and No.25 respectively. The two songs are her 21st and 22nd Top 40 singles. ''Fearless'' was the best-selling album of 2009 in the US with more than 3.2 millions copies sold in that year. Swift claimed both the No.1 and No.2 positions atop Nielsen's BDS Top 10 Most Played Songs chart (all genres), with "You Belong With Me" and "Love Story," respectively. She also topped the all format 2009 Top 10 Artist Airplay chart with over 1.29 million song detections, and the Top 10 Artist Internet Streams chart with more than 46 million song plays.

2010–present: ''Speak Now''

Swift released the track "Today Was a Fairytale" as a digital download on iTunes on January 19, 2010. The song was featured on the soundtrack for the film ''Valentine's Day'', in which she made her feature-film acting debut. The song debuted on the ''Billboard'' Hot 100 at No. 2, becoming her sixth Top 10 and 23rd Top 40 single on that chart. According to Nielsen SoundScan, with sales of "Today Was a Fairytale" more than 325,000 in its first week, Swift has broken the record for first-week download sales by a female artist. The song also debuted at number one on the Canadian Hot 100, making it Swift's first number one hit in Canada. In February 2010, Swift brought her Fearless Tour to 5 cities in Australia. Opening acts included Gloriana. In mid-July 2010, ''Billboard'' revealed that Swift's new album is called ''Speak Now''. It was released on October 25, 2010. She has written the album completely by herself in Arkansas, New York, Boston and Nashville with Nathan Chapman serving as co-producer. On Wednesday, August 4, 2010, the lead single from the album, "Mine," was leaked onto the internet. Big Machine Records decided to rush the release of the song to counteract the leak. Swift appeared at the 44th Annual Country Music Awards on November 10, 2010. In 2011, Swift visited Singapore as the first stop of the Asian leg of her first world tour. Hong Kong is the last stop of the Speak Now World Tour and Swift will begin the European and American leg afterwards. Swift's first live album, ''Speak Now World Tour: Live'', featuring all seventeen performances from the North American leg of her concert tour, is scheduled for a November 21, 2011 release. Many dates on the Speak Now World Tour were cancelled due to Swift suffering from bronchitis and was told she is unable to perform. Swift sold approximately 4,470,000 albums in the US in 2010 (more than any other artist) and sold 9.9 million digital tracks. She was ranked second on ''Rolling Stone'''s lists of Top 16 "Queen Of Pops" of the decade. Swift appeared on the ''Hamish & Andy'' show where she performed a new song called "Chaperone Dads", which is dedicated to a select group of her fans. The week following the release of her "Sparks Fly" video Swift jumped from nineteen to ten on the ''Billboard'''s Social 50. Swift has revealed that she has already written 25 songs for an untitled follow-up album to ''Speak Now'', set to release in the later part of 2012. She commented on them, "They’re sad. If I'm being honest."

On December 23, 2011, Taylor announced via Twitter, "Something I've been VERY excited about for a VERY long time is going to be happening VERY soon." Several hours later, Taylor announced that she is featured on ''The Hunger Games'' Official Movie Soundtrack. Her song, entitled "Safe & Sound", was the first track released from the album. The song was co-written by The Civil Wars, who also co-recorded the song with Taylor. On January 8, 2012, Taylor was elected the fifth top artist (fourth female top artist) of all-time with the best-selling digital music tracks. Taylor has sold 41,821,000 million digital tracks as of the end of 2011 according to Nielsen SoundScan.

Songwriting style

Swift's lyrics are highly autobiographical; she has said that "If you listen to my albums, it’s like reading my diary." For example, the song "Forever & Always" was inspired by her relationship with Joe Jonas, while the song "Hey Stephen" was written about a boy whom she toured with in the past. "Fifteen" was written about her freshman year of high school. It has been said that her lyrics "can be tinged with acid: the quiet loner girl getting one over on the cheerleaders, or a caustic payback for the boy who dumped her." She has also indicated that she tries to write so her fans can relate to the lyrics, saying "My goal is to never write songs that my fans can't relate to." She parodied her confrontational style of songwriting during her appearance on ''Saturday Night Live''; during her opening monologue, she performed an original song that featured lines such as "You might think I'd bring up Joe, that guy who broke up with me on the phone/ Hey, Joe, I'm doing real well, tonight I'm hosting 'SNL'" referring to her highly publicized relationship with Joe Jonas.

The intensely personal nature of the songs has drawn her attention in the music industry. Swift once said, "I thought people might find them hard to relate to, but it turned out that the more personal my songs were, the more closely people could relate to them." Due to the autobiographical nature of her songs, some fans have researched the songs' origins. Swift once said, "Every single one of the guys that I’ve written songs about has been tracked down on MySpace by my fans." ''The New York Times'' described Swift as "one of pop's finest songwriters, country’s foremost pragmatist and more in touch with her inner life than most adults".

Other work

Acting

In 2008, Swift made her acting debut in Brad Paisley's music video "Online". In that same year Swift filmed a documentary for MTV entitled ''MTV's Once Upon a Prom'' and a documentary with Def Leppard for CMT entitled ''CMT Crossroads'', which premiered on November 7, 2008. Swift collaborated with the Jonas Brothers in their 3D Concert Film, ''Jonas Brothers: The 3D Concert Experience''. The film was released on February 27, 2009 in North America and brought in $12.7 million on its opening weekend. Swift made her primetime television acting debut on CBS's ''CSI: Crime Scene Investigation'' "Turn, Turn, Turn" as Haley Jones on March 5, 2009 in the U.S. and Canada. The episode was watched by 20.8 million viewers. Swift made a cameo appearance in Kellie Pickler's music video "Best Days of Your Life". Swift also appeared in ''Hannah Montana: The Movie'' credited as herself. The film was released on April 10, 2009 in North America. The television show Dateline NBC showcased an hour on Swift on May 31, 2009. The episode titled ''Dateline NBC: On Tour With Taylor Swift'' included scenes from her tour bus, concert footage, and rehearsals. Swift both hosted and performed as the musical guest for the November 7, 2009 episode of ''Saturday Night Live''. In 2010, Swift made her feature film acting debut as Felicia in the film ''Valentine's Day''. For this role she won the Teen Choice Award for Movie Female Breakout. She has been cast to voice the role of Audrey in the animated film ''The Lorax'', set to be released in 2012. In January 2012, Swift was offered the role of Eponine in the film adaptation of the musical, ''Les Misérables''.

Cover model and recognition

Swift has been featured on the cover of a number of magazines. She has been a cover girl for ''Blender'', for which she was one of two country artists during the magazine’s fifteen year run to be a cover subject. She was included in ''People'''s annual "100 Most Beautiful People" 2008, 2009, and 2010 lists. Additionally, she was named number fifty-seven on ''Maxim's'' sexiest women of 2008, number fifty on the 2009 list and number thirty-one on the 2010 list. ''CosmoGirl'' voted Swift as the "2008 Girl of the Year". Swift was named by ''Rolling Stone'' magazine as one of "The RS 100: Agents of Change". She was nominated as a candidate for ''TIME''s "2009 The Time 100 Finalists" list, which is determined by online voting. ''People'' magazine named Swift one of 25 Most Intriguing People of 2009.

Merchandise

Jakks Pacific released a celebrity doll of Swift in late 2008. Swift has been the face of L.E.I. Jeans (Life Energy Intelligence) since 2008. Swift and the L.e.i. Clothing Line made a deal to create a line based on Swift's style of dressing, which will appear in Wal-Mart in the coming months. However, Swift said she does not want to be called a designer. Instead, she says she will inspire the clothing company's dress line based on her own style. "I don't look at it like I'm branching out as a designer... It's not the Taylor Swift designer line." In 2009, Swift became the National Hockey League's newest celebrity spokesperson. She appears in commercials for the Nashville Predators.

In May 2009, Swift filed a lawsuit (kept sealed until August 2010) against numerous sellers of unauthorized counterfeit merchandise bearing her name, likeness, and trademarks, where she demanded a trial by jury, sought a judgement for compensatory damages, punitive damages, three times the actual damages sustained, and statutory damages, and sought for recovery of her attorney's fees and prejudgement interest. Nashville's U.S. District Court granted an injunction and judgment against the sellers, who had been identified at Swift's concerts in several states. The court ordered merchandise seized from the defendants to be destroyed. On July 15, 2011, Swift's official website announced that she had partnered with Elizabeth Arden to launch a fragrance, which is to be released in October 2011. The fragrance's name, "Wonderstruck", is a reference to the song "Enchanted" featured on her ''Speak Now'' album. Swift is also working with American Greetings, Inc.

Philanthropy

On September 21, 2007, Swift helped launch a campaign to protect children from online predators. She has teamed up with Tennessee Governor Phil Bredesen to combat internet sex crimes. The year-long campaign, in partnership with the Tennessee Association of Chiefs of Police, will distribute Internet safety information and materials to parents and students across the state. In early 2008, Swift donated the pink Chevy pick-up truck given to her by her record label to the children’s charity, the ''Victory Junction Gang''; in June 2008, Swift donated all the proceeds from her merchandise sales at the 2008 Country Music Festival to Red Cross, the ''Nashville Area Red Cross Disaster Relief Fund'' and the ''National American Red Cross Disaster Relief Fund''.

Swift donated $100,000 to the Red Cross in Cedar Rapids, Iowa to help the victims of the Iowa flood of 2008. Swift has teamed up with Sound Matters to make listeners aware of listening "responsibly". Swift supports @15, a teen-led social change platform underwritten by Best Buy to give teens opportunities to direct the company's philanthropy through the newly-created @15 Fund. Swift's song, "Fifteen", is featured in this campaign. Swift lent her support to the Victorian Bushfire Appeal by joining the lineup at Sydney's Sound Relief concert, reportedly making the biggest contribution of any artist playing at Sound Relief to the Australian Red Cross. Swift donated her prom dress, which raised $1,200 for charity, to DonateMyDress.org. On November 20, 2009 after a live performance on BBC's Children in Need night Swift announced to Sir Terry Wogan she would donate £13,000 of her own money to the cause.

On December 13, Swift's own birthday, she donated $250,000 to various schools around the country which she had either attended or been involved with. Swift has donated a pair of her shoes – a gently-worn pair of black Betsey Johnson heels with her autograph on the sole – to the Wish Upon a Hero Foundation's Hero in Heels fundraiser for auction to raise money to benefit women with cancer.

In response to the May 2010 Tennessee floods, Swift donated $500,000 during a flood relief telethon hosted by WSMV, a Nashville television station.

On May 23, 2011, Taylor Swift transformed what was to have been the final dress rehearsal for the North American leg of her Speak Now tour into a benefit concert for victims of recent tornadoes in the United States southeast region. The concert in Nashville drew more than 13,000 people and raised more than $750,000 from proceeds from ticket sales, merchandise and other facets of the show. The benefit concert for tornado relief was subsequently honored at the 2011 Do Something Awards. In July 2011, Swift further aided to the cause by donating $250,000 to Alabama football coach Nick Saban's charity Nick's Kids to aid in the tornado relief efforts of West Alabama.

Personal life

In addition to her relationship with Joe Jonas, which ended in October 2008, Swift's dating history has included other celebrities: Taylor Lautner, for three months in 2009; and Jake Gyllenhaal, from late 2010 to early 2011. Swift has also been romantically linked to John Mayer. There has been speculation that the songs "Dear John" and "The Story of Us" from her album ''Speak Now'' are about Mayer. In October 2011, she revealed to Ellen Degeneres on her show ''Ellen'' that, "I don't even have, like, kind of a boyfriend. I don't have someone that I'm texting that is a guy that someday might be my boyfriend. There's like nothing going on right now."

In November 2011, Taylor adopted a Scottish fold kitten. She named her Meredith after the character Meredith Grey from the popular ABC drama ''Grey's Anatomy''. The kitten appeared in the official music video for Taylor's song ''Ours'' alongside Taylor and ''Friday Night Lights'' star Zach Gilford.

Filmography

>

! Year	! Title	! Role	Notes
2007		Herself	Guest; Episode: Season 2 Finale
2008	''CMT Crossroads''	Herself	Episode: "Taylor Swift and Def Leppard"
2009	''Jonas Brothers: The 3D Concert Experience''	Herself
2009	''CSI: Crime Scene Investigation''	Haley Jones
2009	''Hannah Montana: The Movie''	Herself	Cameo
2009	''Saturday Night Live''	Herself	Host/Musical Guest
2009		Herself	Guest; Episode: Week 6 results
2010		Felicia	Movie acting debut
2010	''Taylor Swift: Journey to Fearless''	Herself	Main Role
2010		Herself	Guest; Episode: 200th episode
2012	''''	Audrey
2012	''Bruno the Robot''	Various

Discography

Albums

''Taylor Swift'' (2006)

''Fearless'' (2008)

''Speak Now'' (2010)

Awards and nominations

Tours

Fearless Tour (2009–10)

Speak Now World Tour (2011–2012)

References

External links

Category:1989 births Category:American child singers Category:American country banjoists Category:American country singer-songwriters Category:American female guitarists Category:American female singers Category:American film actors Category:American pianists Category:American pop singers Category:American television actors Category:Big Machine Records artists Category:Child pop musicians Category:English-language singers Category:Grammy Award winners Category:Living people Category:Musicians from Pennsylvania Category:People from Reading, Pennsylvania Category:People from Wyomissing, Pennsylvania Category:Ukulele players

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name	Don McLean
background	solo_singer
birth name	Donald McLean
birth date	October 02, 1945
instrument	Vocals, guitarbanjo, piano
genre	Folk, folk rock
label	United ArtistsEMI America
occupation	Singer-songwriter, musician
years active	1969–present
website	www.don-mclean.com }}

Donald "Don" McLean (born October 2, 1945, New Rochelle, New York) is an American singer-songwriter. He is most famous for the 1971 album ''American Pie'', containing the renowned songs "American Pie" and "Vincent".

Musical roots

Both McLean's grandfather and father were also named Donald McLean. The Buccis, the family of McLean's mother, Elizabeth, came from Abruzzo in central Italy. They left Italy and settled in Port Chester, New York, at the end of the 19th century. He has other extended family in Los Angeles and Boston.

As a teenager, McLean became interested in folk music, particularly the Weavers' 1955 recording ''At Carnegie Hall''. Childhood asthma meant that McLean missed long periods of school, and although he slipped back in his studies, his love of music was allowed to flourish. He often performed shows for family and friends. By age 16 he had bought his first guitar (a Harmony acoustic archtop with a sunburst finish) and begun making contacts in the music business, becoming friends with folk singer Erik Darling, a latter-day member of the Weavers. McLean recorded his first studio sessions (with singer Lisa Kindred) while still in prep school.

McLean graduated from Iona Preparatory School in 1963, and briefly attended Villanova University, dropping out after four months. While at Villanova he became friends with singer/songwriter Jim Croce.

After leaving Villanova, McLean became associated with famed folk music agent Harold Leventhal, and for the next six years performed at venues and events including the Bitter End and the Gaslight Cafe in New York, the Newport Folk Festival, the Cellar Door in Washington, D.C., and the Troubadour in Los Angeles. Concurrently, McLean attended night school at Iona College and received a bachelor's degree in business administration in 1968. He turned down a scholarship to Columbia University Graduate School in favour of becoming resident singer at Caffè Lena in Saratoga Springs, New York.

In 1968, with the help of a grant from the New York State Council on the Arts, McLean began reaching a wider public, with visits to towns up and down the Hudson River. He learned the art of performing from his friend and mentor Pete Seeger. McLean accompanied Seeger on his Clearwater boat trip up the Hudson River in 1969 to raise awareness about environmental pollution in the river. During this time McLean wrote songs that would appear on his first album, ''Tapestry.'' McLean co-edited the book ''Songs and Sketches of the First Clearwater Crew'' with sketches by Thomas B. Allen for which Pete Seeger wrote the foreword. Seeger and McLean sang "Shenandoah" on the 1974 Clearwater album.

Recording career

Early breakthrough

McLean recorded his first album, ''Tapestry'', in 1969 in Berkeley, California during the student riots. After being rejected by 34 labels, the album was released by Mediarts and attracted good reviews but little notice outside the folk community.

McLean's major break came when Mediarts was taken over by United Artists Records thus securing for his second album, ''American Pie,'' the promotion of a major label. The album spawned two No. 1 hits in the title song and "Vincent". ''American Pie'''s success made McLean an international star and renewed interest in his first album, which charted more than two years after its initial release.

American Pie

McLean's magnum opus, "American Pie", is a sprawling, impressionistic ballad inspired partly by the deaths of Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens and J. P. Richardson (The Big Bopper) in a plane crash on 3 February 1959. The song popularized the expression "The Day the Music Died" in reference to this event. WCFL DJ Bob Dearborn unraveled the lyrics and first published his interpretation on 7 January 1972, eight days before the song reached #1 nationally (see "Further reading" under American Pie). Numerous other interpretations, which together largely converged on Dearborn's interpretation, quickly followed. McLean declined to say anything definitive about the lyrics until 1978. Since then McLean has stated that the lyrics are also somewhat autobiographical and present an abstract story of his life from the mid-1950s until the time he wrote the song in the late 1960s.

The song was recorded on 26 May 1971 and a month later received its first radio airplay on New York’s WNEW-FM and WPLJ-FM to mark the closing of The Fillmore East, a famous New York concert hall. "American Pie" reached number one on the U.S. ''Billboard magazine'' charts for four weeks in 1972, and remains McLean's most successful single release. The single also topped the ''Billboard'' Easy Listening survey. With a running time of 8:36, it is also the longest song to reach No. 1. Some stations played only part one of the original split-sided single release.

In 2010, John Ondrasik - the singer-songwriter known as Five for Fighting - released the single "Slice" from the album of the same name. The song is a tribute to "American Pie", a nostalgic look at how it once captivated people's collective ears, minds and voices, and an expression of hope that our increasing individuality hasn't dulled our ability to 'sing the same song'.

In 2001 "American Pie" was voted No. 5 in a poll of the 365 Songs of the Century compiled by the Recording Industry Association of America and the National Endowment for the Arts. The top five were: "Over the Rainbow" written by Harold Arlen and E.Y. "Yip" Harburg (performed by Judy Garland in the 1939 film The Wizard of Oz), "White Christmas" written by Irving Berlin (best-known performance by Bing Crosby), "This Land Is Your Land" written and performed by Woody Guthrie, "Respect" written by Otis Redding (best-known performance by Aretha Franklin), and "American Pie".

Subsequent recordings

Personnel from the ''American Pie'' album sessions were retained for his third album ''Don McLean'', including producer, Ed Freeman, Rob Rothstein on bass and Warren Bernhardt on piano. The song "The Pride Parade" provides an insight into McLean’s immediate reaction to stardom. McLean told ''Melody Maker'' magazine in 1973 that ''Tapestry'' was an album by someone previously concerned with external situations. ''American Pie'' combines externals with internals and the resultant success of that album makes the third one (''Don McLean'') entirely introspective."

Other songs written by McLean for the album included “Dreidel” (number 21 on the Billboard chart) and “If We Try” (number 58), which was subsequently recorded by Olivia Newton-John. “On the Amazon” from the 1920s musical Mr Cinders was an unusual choice but became an audience favorite in concerts and featured in “Till Tomorrow”, a documentary film about McLean produced by Bob Elfstrom. The film shows McLean in concert at Columbia University as he was interrupted by a bomb scare. He left the stage while the audience stood up and checked under their seats for anything that resembled a bomb. After the all-clear, McLean re-appeared and sang “On the Amazon” from exactly where he had left off. Don Heckman reported the bomb scare in his review for the New York Times entitled “Don McLean Survives Two Obstacles.”

The fourth album, ''Playin' Favorites'' was a top-40 hit in the UK in 1973 and included the Irish folk classic, "Mountains of Mourne" and Buddy Holly’s "Everyday", a live rendition of which returned McLean to the UK Singles Chart. McLean said, "The last album (''Don McLean'') was a study in depression whereas the new one (''Playin' Favorites'') is almost the quintessence of optimism, with a feeling of "Wow, I just woke up from a bad dream."

The 1974 album ''Homeless Brother'', produced by Joel Dorn, was McLean’s final studio collaboration with United Artists. The album featured fine New York session musicians, including Ralph McDonald on percussion, Hugh McKracken on guitar and a guest appearance by Yusef Lateef on flute. The Persuasions sang the background vocals on “Crying in the Chapel” and Cissy Houston provided a backing vocal on “La La Love You”.

The album’s title song was inspired by Jack Kerouac’s book, ''The Lonesome Traveller'' in which Kerouac tells the story of America’s “homeless brothers,” or hobos. The song features background vocals by Pete Seeger.

The song “The Legend of Andrew McCrew” was based on an article published in the New York Times. concerning a black Dallas hobo named Anderson McCrew who was killed when he leapt from a moving train. No one claimed him, so a carnival took his body, mummified it, and toured all over the South with him, calling him the “The Famous Mummy Man.” McLean’s song inspired radio station WGN in Chicago to tell the story and give the song airplay in order to raise money for a headstone for Anderson McCrew’s grave. Their campaign was successful and McCrew’s body was exhumed and buried in the Lincoln Cemetery in Dallas. The tombstone had an inscription with words from the fourth verse of McLean’s song:

What a way to live a life, and what a way to die

Left to live a living death with no one left to cry

A petrified amazement, a wonder beyond worth

A man who found more life in death than life gave him at birth

Joel Dorn later collaborated on the Don McLean career retrospective ''Rearview Mirror'' released in 2005 on Dorn’s own label Hyena Records. In 2006, Dorn reflected on working with McLean:

Of the more than 200 studio albums I’ve produced in the past forty plus years, there is a handful; maybe fifteen or so that I can actually listen to from top to bottom. ''Homeless Brother'' is one of them. It accomplished everything I set out to do. And it did so because it was a true collaboration. Don brought so much to the project that all I really had to do was capture what he did, and complement it properly when necessary.

Also from the ''Homeless Brother'' album, "Wonderful Baby" was a number 1 on the AOR chart in 1975 and was later recorded by Fred Astaire. The song had been inspired by Joel Dorn’s son and reflected McLean’s interest in 1930s music.

1977 saw a brief liaison with Arista Records that yielded the ''Prime Time'' album and, in October 1978, the single "It Doesn’t Matter Anymore". This was a track from the ''Chain Lightning'' album that should have been the second of four with Arista. McLean had started recording in Nashville, with Elvis Presley’s backing singers, The Jordanaires, and many of Elvis’s musicians. However the Arista deal broke down following artistic disagreements between McLean and the Arista chief, Clive Davis. Consequently McLean was left without a record contract in the USA, but through continuing deals the ''Chain Lightning'' album was released by EMI in Europe and by Festival Records in Australia. In April 1980, the track "Crying” from the album began picking up airplay on Dutch radio stations and McLean was called to Europe to appear on several important musical variety shows to plug the song and support its release as a single by EMI. The song achieved number 1 status in Holland first, followed by the UK and then Australia.

Don’s number 1 successes in Europe and Australia led to a new deal in the USA with Millennium Records. They issued the ''Chain Lightning'' album two and a half years after it had been recorded in Nashville, and two years after its release in Europe. It charted on February 14th, 1981 and reached number 28 while "Crying" climbed to number 5 on the pop singles chart.

The early 1980s saw further chart successes in the US with "Since I Don't Have You", a new recording of "Castles in the Air" and "It's Just the Sun".

In 1987, the release of the country-based ''Love Tracks'' album gave rise to the hit singles "Love in My Heart" (a top-10 in Australia), "Can't Blame the Wreck on the Train" (US country No. 49), and "Eventually". The latter two songs were written by Houston native Terri Sharp.

In 1991, EMI reissued the "American Pie" single in the United Kingdom and McLean performed on ''Top of the Pops''.

In 1992, previously unreleased songs became available on ''Favorites and Rarities'' while ''Don McLean Classics'' featured new studio recordings of "Vincent" and "American Pie".

Don McLean has continued to record new material including ''River of Love'' in 1995 on Curb Records and, more recently, the albums ''You've Got to Share'', ''Don McLean Sings Marty Robbins'' and ''The Western Album'' on his own Don McLean Music label.

A new album, ''Addicted to Black'', was released in May 2009 and is available for purchase at his North American concert performances and is available on his website. In addition, McLean is expecting to tour in Europe and Australia in 2010.

Other songs

McLean's other well-known songs include:

"And I Love You So" was covered by Elvis Presley, Helen Reddy, Shirley Bassey, Glen Campbell, Engelbert Humperdinck, Howard Keel and a 1973 hit for Perry Como

"Vincent", a tribute to the 19th century Dutch painter, Vincent van Gogh. Although it only reached #12 on the ''Billboard'' Hot 100, it proved to be a huge hit worldwide. It was a #1 hit single in the UK Singles Chart. This song was covered by NOFX on their album titled ''45 or 46 Songs That Weren't Good Enough to Go on Our Other Records'', and also appears on the Fat Wreck Chords compilation ''Survival of the Fattest''. "Vincent" was also covered by Josh Groban on his 2001 debut album. "Castles in the Air", which McLean recorded twice. His 1981 re-recording was a top-40 hit, reaching #36 on the ''Billboard'' Hot 100 in late 1981. "Wonderful Baby", a tribute to Fred Astaire that Astaire himself recorded. Primarily rejected by pop stations, it reached #1 on the ''Billboard'' Easy Listening survey.

"Superman's Ghost", a tribute to George Reeves, who portrayed Superman on television in the 1950s

"The Grave", a song that McLean had written about the Vietnam War, was covered by George Michael in 2003 in protest against the Iraq War.

The ''American Pie'' album features a version of Psalm 137, entitled "Babylon". The song is based on a canon by Philip Hayes and was arranged by McLean and Lee Hays (of The Weavers). Boney M had a number one hit in the UK with a similar song in 1978 under the title ''Rivers of Babylon'', which was not based on this one, although using the same text from Psalm 137.

In 1980, McLean had an international number one hit with a cover of the Roy Orbison classic, "Crying". It was only after the record became a success overseas that it was released in the U.S. The single hit #5 on the ''Billboard'' Hot 100 in 1981. Orbison himself once described McLean as "the voice of the century", and a subsequent re-recording of the song saw Orbison incorporate elements of McLean's version.

For the 1982 animated cult-movie ''The Flight of Dragons'' produced by Jules Bass and Arthur Rankin, Jr., McLean sang the opening theme. Unfortunately, no soundtrack has ever been released.

Another hit song associated with McLean (though never recorded by him) is "Killing Me Softly with His Song", which was written ''about'' McLean after Lori Lieberman, also a singer/songwriter, saw him singing his composition "Empty Chairs" in concert. Afterwards, Lieberman wrote a poem about the experience and shared it with Norman Gimbel, who had long been searching for a way to use a phrase he had copied from a novel badly translated from Spanish to English, "killing me softly with his blues". Gimbel and Charles Fox reworked the poem and the phrase into the song "Killing Me Softly with His Song", recorded by Roberta Flack (and later covered by The Fugees).

Concerts

McLean’s subsequent albums did not match the commercial success of ''American Pie'' but he became a major concert attraction in the US and overseas. His repertoire included old concert hall numbers and the catalogues of singers such as Buddy Holly, and another McLean influence, Frank Sinatra. The years spent playing gigs in small clubs and coffee houses in the 1960s transformed into well-paced performances. McLean's first concerts at Carnegie Hall in New York and the Albert Hall in London in 1972 were critically acclaimed.

In the 1970s, McLean usually toured solo but from 1981 to 1996 was accompanied by John Platania on guitar. He now tours with his own band of Nashville musicians: Tony Migliore, Jerry Kroon, Ralph Childs and Carl "VIP" Viperman.

In 1997, McLean performed "American Pie" with Garth Brooks at Brooks' free concert in Central Park in New York City. CNN reported that "Brooks was joined on stage by two surprise guest stars, Billy Joel and Don McLean, who brought down the house with an acoustic rendition of 'American Pie'."

Two years later, Brooks repaid the favor by appearing as a special guest (with Nanci Griffith) on McLean's first American TV special, broadcast as the PBS special ''Starry Starry Night''. A month later, McLean wound up the 20th century by performing "American Pie" at the Lincoln Memorial Gala in Washington D.C. Brooks again played "American Pie" during We Are One: The Obama Inaugural Celebration at the Lincoln Memorial on January 18, 2009.

In 2007 Don McLean signed with the Asgard Agency in London giving them responsibility for booking concert tours outside North America. Since then McLean has performed tours of the UK (2007, 2008 (one appearance), 2010, 2011), Ireland (2007, 2010, 2011), mainland Europe (2008, 2010), Australia and New Zealand (2008, 2011) and South East Asia (2011). On June 26, 2011, Don McLean performed on the Pyramid Stage at the Glastonbury Festival of Contemporary Performing Arts.

McLean had a series of conflicts with ''Saturday Night Live'' writer Andy Breckman, starting when Breckman opened for McLean on tour in 1980. Breckman and McLean have penned competing renditions of the origins of this feud, both of which are available online.

Later work and honors

In 1991, Don McLean returned to the UK top 20 with a re-issue of "American Pie".

Iona College conferred an honorary doctorate on McLean in 2001.

In February 2002, "American Pie" was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame.

In 2004, McLean was inaugurated into the Songwriters Hall of Fame. Garth Brooks presented the award and said "Don McLean: his work, like the man himself, is very deep and very compassionate. His pop anthem 'American Pie' is a cultural phenomenon".

In 2007, the biography ''The Don McLean Story: Killing Us Softly With His Songs'' was published. Biographer Alan Howard conducted extensive interviews for this, the only book-length biography of the often reclusive McLean to date.

In 2008, New York City radio station Q104.3 FM WAXQ named Don McLean's "American Pie" number 37 in their 2008 ''Top 1,043 Songs Of All Time'' listener-generated countdown.

Discography

Albums

Year	Album	Chart Positions
		! width="50"	CAN
1970
1971
1972
1973	''Playin' Favorites''
1974	''Homeless Brother''
1976
1977
1978
1981
1982
1987
	''For the Memories Vols I & II''
1990
1991
1995	''The River of Love''
1997	''Christmas Dreams''
	''Sings Marty Robbins''
''The Western Album''
2004	''Christmastime!''
2005	''Rearview Mirror: An American Musical Journey''
2009	''Addicted to Black''

^A''Chain Lightning'' also peaked at #3 on the ''RPM'' Country Albums chart in Canada.

Compilations

! Year	! Album
1980	''The Very Best of Don McLean''
1987	''Don McLean's Greatest Hits · Then & Now''
1991	''The Best of Don McLean''
1992	''Favorites and Rarities''
2003	''Legendary Songs of Don McLean''
2007	''The Legendary Don McLean''
2008	''American Pie & Other Hits''

Singles

Year	Single	Peak chart positions							Album
		! width="45"	! width="45"	! width="45"	CAN	CAN AC	CAN Country	! width="45"
		—	40	—	—	—	—	—
align="left"	1	1	—	1	1	—	2
1972	align="left"	12	2	—	3	13	—	1
		21	7	—	16	5	—	—
	58	12	—	82	22	—	—
	—	—	—	—	—	—	38
1974		107	25	—	—	90	—	—
1975		93	1	—	—	—	—	—
1980	align="left"	5	2	6	7	—	1	1
		23	6	68	45	2	—	—
	83	20	—	—	12	—	—
	36	7	—	—	2	—	47
		—	—	73	—	—	—	—
	—	—	49	—	—	—	—
1988		—	—	65	—	—	—	—
1991		—	—	—	—	—	—	2

;Notes

^AThe original version of "Castles in the Air" was included on the ''Tapestry'' album. In February 1971, it was released as the first single from the album and reached #40 on the ''Billboard'' Easy Listening / Adult Contemporary chart. After the success of the "American Pie" single, "Castles in the Air" was included as the B-side to its follow-up, "Vincent", and received enough radio airplay to reach the Hot 100 chart as a "flip". McLean's 1981 version of the song first appeared on his album ''Believers'', and later replaced the original version on some copies of ''Tapestry''.

Rarities

! Year	! Title	! Additional information
1982	"The Flight of Dragons"	This song was recorded for the film ''The Flight of Dragons'' in the early 1980s.
1994		''Grammy's Greatest Moments Volume III''

References

External links

The Official Web Site of Don McLean and American Pie

[ Allmusic Entry]

Tom Redmond - Working with Chet Atkins: an interview with Don McLean

Category:1945 births Category:Living people Category:People from Westchester County, New York Category:American people of Irish descent Category:American people of Italian descent Category:American people of Scottish descent Category:American musicians of Irish descent Category:American people of Scottish descent Category:American musicians of Italian descent Category:American singer-songwriters Category:American male singers Category:Songwriters Hall of Fame inductees Category:Pantheists Category:Iona College (New York) alumni Category:Ballad musicians Category:People from New Rochelle, New York

bg:Дон Маклейн ca:Don McLean cs:Don McLean da:Don McLean de:Don McLean es:Don McLean fr:Don McLean id:Don McLean it:Don McLean he:דון מקלין lt:Don McLean nl:Don McLean ja:ドン・マクリーン no:Don McLean pl:Don McLean pt:Don McLean ru:Маклин, Дон simple:Don McLean fi:Don McLean sv:Don McLean tl:Don McLean th:ดอน แม็กลีน uk:Дон Маклін vi:Don McLean zh:唐·麥克林

name	Ella Fitzgerald
background	solo_singer
birth name	Ella Jane Fitzgerald
alias	First Lady of Song, Lady Ella
born	April 25, 1917Newport News, Virginia, U.S.
Origin	Yonkers, New York
died	June 15, 1996Beverly Hills, California, U.S.
genre	Swing, traditional pop, vocal jazz
instrument	PianoVocals
occupation	Vocalist
years active	1934–1993
label	Capitol, Decca, Pablo, Reprise, Verve
website	EllaFitzgerald.com }}

Ella Jane Fitzgerald (April 25, 1917 – June 15, 1996), also known as the "First Lady of Song" and "Lady Ella," was an American jazz and song vocalist. With a vocal range spanning three octaves (Db3 to Db6), she was noted for her purity of tone, impeccable diction, phrasing and intonation, and a "horn-like" improvisational ability, particularly in her scat singing.

She is considered to be a notable interpreter of the Great American Songbook. Over the course of her 59 year recording career, she was the winner of 13 Grammy Awards and was awarded the National Medal of Arts by Ronald Reagan and the Presidential Medal of Freedom by George H. W. Bush.

Early life

Fitzgerald was born in Newport News, Virginia, the child of a common-law marriage between William and Temperance "Tempie" Fitzgerald. The pair separated soon after her birth and she and her mother went to Yonkers, N.Y, where they eventually moved in with Tempie's longtime boyfriend Joseph Da Silva. Fitzgerald's half-sister, Frances Da Silva, was born in 1923.

In her youth Fitzgerald wanted to be a dancer, although she loved listening to jazz recordings by Louis Armstrong, Bing Crosby and The Boswell Sisters. She idolized the lead singer Connee Boswell, later saying, "My mother brought home one of her records, and I fell in love with it....I tried so hard to sound just like her."

In 1932, her mother died from a heart attack. Following this trauma, Fitzgerald's grades dropped dramatically and she frequently skipped school. Abused by her stepfather, she was first taken in by an aunt and at one point worked as a lookout at a bordello and also with a Mafia-affiliated numbers runner. When the authorities caught up with her, she was first placed in the Colored Orphan Asylum in Riverdale, the Bronx. However, when the orphanage proved too crowded she was moved to the New York Training School for Girls in Hudson, New York, a state reformatory. Eventually she escaped and for a time was homeless.

She made her singing debut at 17 on November 21, 1934 at the Apollo Theater. in Harlem, New York. She pulled in a weekly audience at the Apollo and won the opportunity to compete in one of the earliest of its famous "Amateur Nights". She had originally intended to go on stage and dance but, intimidated by the Edwards Sisters, a local dance duo, she opted to sing instead in the style of Connee Boswell. She sang Boswell's "Judy" and "The Object of My Affection," a song recorded by the Boswell Sisters, and won the first prize of US$25.00.

Later life

Fitzgerald married at least twice, and there is evidence that she may have married a third time. In 1941 she married Benny Kornegay, a convicted drug dealer and local dockworker. The marriage was annulled after two years.

Her second marriage, in December 1947, was to the famous bass player Ray Brown, whom she had met while on tour with Dizzy Gillespie's band a year earlier. Together they adopted a child born to Fitzgerald's half-sister, Frances, whom they christened Ray Brown, Jr. With Fitzgerald and Brown often busy touring and recording, the child was largely raised by her aunt, Virginia. Fitzgerald and Brown divorced in 1953, bowing to the various career pressures both were experiencing at the time, though they would continue to perform together.

In July 1957, Reuters reported that Fitzgerald had secretly married Thor Einar Larsen, a young Norwegian, in Oslo. She had even gone as far as furnishing an apartment in Oslo, but the affair was quickly forgotten when Larsen was sentenced to five months hard labor in Sweden for stealing money from a young woman to whom he had previously been engaged.

Fitzgerald was also notoriously shy. Trumpet player Mario Bauza, who played behind Fitzgerald in her early years with Chick Webb, remembered that "she didn’t hang out much. When she got into the band, she was dedicated to her music….She was a lonely girl around New York, just kept herself to herself, for the gig." When, later in her career, the Society of Singers named an award after her, Fitzgerald explained, "I don't want to say the wrong thing, which I always do. I think I do better when I sing."

Already visually impaired by the effects of diabetes, Fitzgerald had both her legs amputated in 1993. In 1996 she died of the disease in Beverly Hills, California at the age of 79. She is buried in the Inglewood Park Cemetery in Inglewood, California. The career history and archival material from Ella's long career are housed in the Archives Center at the Smithsonian's National Museum of American History while her personal music arrangements are at The Library of Congress. Her extensive cookbook collection was donated to the Schlesinger Library at Harvard University while her published sheet music collection is at the Schoenberg Library at UCLA.

Career

Big-band singing

In January 1935, Fitzgerald won the chance to perform for a week with the Tiny Bradshaw band at the Harlem Opera House. She met drummer and bandleader Chick Webb here. Webb had already hired singer Charlie Linton to work with the band and was, ''The New York Times'' later wrote, "reluctant to sign her....because she was gawky and unkempt, a ''diamond in the rough.''" Webb offered her the opportunity to test with his band when they played a dance at Yale University.

She began singing regularly with Webb's Orchestra through 1935 at Harlem's Savoy Ballroom. Fitzgerald recorded several hit songs with them, including "Love and Kisses" and "(If You Can't Sing It) You'll Have to Swing It (Mr. Paganini)". But it was her 1938 version of the nursery rhyme, "A-Tisket, A-Tasket", a song she co-wrote, that brought her wide public acclaim.

Chick Webb died on June 16, 1939, and his band was renamed "Ella Fitzgerald and her Famous Orchestra" with Ella taking on the role of bandleader. Fitzgerald recorded nearly 150 sides during her time with the orchestra, most of which, like "A-Tisket, A-Tasket," were "novelties and disposable pop fluff."

The Decca years

In 1942, Fitzgerald left the band to begin a solo career. Now signed to the Decca label, she had several popular hits while recording with such artists as the Ink Spots, Louis Jordan, and the Delta Rhythm Boys.

With Decca's Milt Gabler as her manager, she began working regularly for the jazz impresario Norman Granz, and appeared regularly in his Jazz at the Philharmonic (JATP) concerts. Fitzgerald's relationship with Granz was further cemented when he became her manager, although it would be nearly a decade before he could record her on one of his many record labels.

With the demise of the Swing era and the decline of the great touring big bands, a major change in jazz music occurred. The advent of bebop led to new developments in Fitzgerald's vocal style, influenced by her work with Dizzy Gillespie's big band. It was in this period that Fitzgerald started including scat singing as a major part of her performance repertoire. While singing with Gillespie, Fitzgerald recalled, "I just tried to do [with my voice] what I heard the horns in the band doing."

Her 1945 scat recording of Flying Home (arranged by Vic Schoen) would later be described by ''The New York Times'' as "one of the most influential vocal jazz records of the decade....Where other singers, most notably Louis Armstrong, had tried similar improvisation, no one before Miss Fitzgerald employed the technique with such dazzling inventiveness." Her bebop recording of "Oh, Lady be Good!" (1947) was similarly popular and increased her reputation as one of the leading jazz vocalists.

Perhaps responding to criticism and under pressure from Granz, who felt that Fitzgerald was given unsuitable material to record during this period, her last years on the Decca label saw Fitzgerald recording a series of duets with pianist Ellis Larkins, released in 1950 as ''Ella Sings Gershwin''.

Move to Verve and mainstream success

Fitzgerald was still performing at Granz's JATP concerts by 1955. Fitzgerald left Decca and Granz, now her manager, created Verve Records around her.

Fitzgerald later described the period as strategically crucial, saying, "I had gotten to the point where I was only singing be-bop. I thought be-bop was 'it,' and that all I had to do was go some place and sing bop. But it finally got to the point where I had no place to sing. I realized then that there was more to music than bop. Norman....felt that I should do other things, so he produced ''The Cole Porter Songbook'' with me. It was a turning point in my life."

''Ella Fitzgerald Sings the Cole Porter Songbook'', released in 1956, was the first of eight multi-album Songbook sets Fitzgerald would record for Verve at irregular intervals from 1956 to 1964. The composers and lyricists spotlighted on each set, taken together, represent the greatest part of the cultural canon known as the ''Great American Songbook''. Fitzgerald's song selections ranged from standards to rarities and represented an attempt by Fitzgerald to cross over into a non-jazz audience. ''Ella Fitzgerald Sings the Duke Ellington Songbook'' was the only Songbook on which the composer she interpreted played with her. Duke Ellington and his longtime collaborator Billy Strayhorn both appeared on exactly half the set's 38 tracks and wrote two new pieces of music for the album: "The E and D Blues" and a four-movement musical portrait of Fitzgerald (the only Songbook track on which Fitzgerald does not sing).

The Songbook series ended up becoming the singer's most critically acclaimed and commercially successful work, and probably her most significant offering to American culture. ''The New York Times'' wrote in 1996, "These albums were among the first pop records to devote such serious attention to individual songwriters, and they were instrumental in establishing the pop album as a vehicle for serious musical exploration."

A few days after Fitzgerald's death, ''New York Times'' columnist Frank Rich wrote that in the Songbook series Fitzgerald "performed a cultural transaction as extraordinary as Elvis's contemporaneous integration of white and African-American soul. Here was a black woman popularizing urban songs often written by immigrant Jews to a national audience of predominantly white Christians." Frank Sinatra was moved out of respect for Fitzgerald to block Capitol Records from re-releasing his own recordings in a similar, single composer vein.

Ella Fitzgerald also recorded albums exclusively devoted to the songs of Porter and Gershwin in 1972 and 1983; the albums being, respectively, ''Ella Loves Cole'' and ''Nice Work If You Can Get It''. A later collection devoted to a single composer was released during her time with Pablo Records, ''Ella Abraça Jobim'', featuring the songs of Antonio Carlos Jobim.

While recording the Songbooks and the occasional studio album, Fitzgerald toured 40 to 45 weeks per year in the United States and internationally, under the tutelage of Norman Granz. Granz helped solidify her position as one of the leading live jazz performers.

In the mid-1950s, Fitzgerald became the first African-American to perform at the Mocambo, after Marilyn Monroe had lobbied the owner for the booking. The booking was instrumental in Fitzgerald's career. The incident was turned into a play by Bonnie Greer in 2005.

There are several live albums on Verve that are highly regarded by critics. ''Ella at the Opera House'' shows a typical JATP set from Fitzgerald. ''Ella in Rome'' and ''Twelve Nights In Hollywood'' display her vocal jazz canon. ''Ella in Berlin'' is still one of her best selling albums; it includes a Grammy-winning performance of "Mack the Knife" in which she forgets the lyrics, but improvises magnificently to compensate.

Voice

As Will Friedwald noted

Unlike any other singer you could name, Fitzgerald has the most amazing asset in the very sound of her voice: it's easily one of the most beautiful and sonically perfect sounds known to man. Even if she couldn't do anything with it, the instrument that Fitzgerald starts with is dulcet and pure and breathtakingly beautiful. As Henry Pleasants has observed, she has a wider range than most opera singers, and many of the latter, including Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau, are among her biggest fans. And the intonation that goes with the voice is, to put it conservatively, God-like. Fitzgerald simply exists in tune, and she hits every note that there is without the slightest trace of effort. Other singers tend to sound like they're trying to reach up to a note - Fitzgerald always sounds like she's already there. If anything, she's descending from her heavenly perch and swooping down to whatever pitch she wants.

Henry Pleasants, an American classical-music critic, wrote this about her:

She has a lovely voice, one of the warmest and most radiant in its natural range that I have heard in a lifetime of listening to singers in every category. She has an impeccable and ultimately sophisticated rhythmic sense, and flawless intonation. Her harmonic sensibility is extraordinary. She is endlessly inventive.. . it is not so much what she does, or even the way she does it, it's what she does not do. What she does not do, putting it simply as possible, is anything wrong. There is simply nothing in performance to which one would take exception.. . Everything seems to be just right. One would not want it any other way. Nor can one, for a moment imagine it any other way.

Ella Fitzgerald had an extraordinary vocal range. A mezzo-soprano (who sang much lower than most classical contraltos), she had a range of “2 octaves and a sixth from a low D or D flat to a high B flat and possibly higher”.

In 1993, Fitzgerald established the Charitable Foundation that bears her name: The Ella Fitzgerald Charitable Foundation, which continues to help the disadvantaged through grants and donation of new books to at-risk children.

Film and television

In her most notable screen role, Fitzgerald played the part of singer Maggie Jackson in Jack Webb's 1955 jazz film ''Pete Kelly's Blues''. The film costarred Janet Leigh and singer Peggy Lee. Even though she had already worked in the movies (she had sung briefly in the 1942 Abbott and Costello film ''Ride 'Em Cowboy''), she was "delighted" when Norman Granz negotiated the role for her, and, "at the time....considered her role in the Warner Brothers movie the biggest thing ever to have happened to her." Amid ''The New York Times''' pan of the film when it opened in August 1955, the reviewer wrote, "About five minutes (out of ninety-five) suggest the picture this might have been. Take the ingenious prologue...Or take the fleeting scenes when the wonderful Ella Fitzgerald, allotted a few spoken lines, fills the screen and sound track with her strong mobile features and voice."

Similar to another African-American jazz singer, Lena Horne, Fitzgerald's race precluded major big-screen success. After ''Pete Kelly's Blues'', she appeared in sporadic movie cameos, in ''St. Louis Blues'' (1958), and ''Let No Man Write My Epitaph'' (1960). Much later, she appeared in the 1980s television drama ''The White Shadow''.

She also made numerous guest appearances on television shows, singing on ''The Pat Boone Chevy Showroom'', ''The Frank Sinatra Show'', and alongside Nat King Cole, Dean Martin, Mel Tormé and many others. Perhaps her most unusual and intriguing performance was of the 'Three Little Maids' song from Gilbert and Sullivan's comic operetta ''The Mikado'' alongside Joan Sutherland and Dinah Shore on Shore's weekly variety series in 1963. Fitzgerald also made a one-off appearance alongside Sarah Vaughan and Pearl Bailey on a 1979 television special honoring Bailey. In 1980, she performed a medley of standards in a duet with Karen Carpenter on the Carpenters' television program, ''Music, Music, Music''.

Fitzgerald also appeared in TV commercials, her most memorable being an ad for Memorex. In the commercials, she sang a note that shattered a glass while being recorded on a Memorex cassette tape. The tape was played back and the recording also broke the glass, asking "Is it live, or is it Memorex?" She also starred in a number of commercials for Kentucky Fried Chicken, singing and scatting to the fast-food chain's longtime slogan, "We do chicken right!"

Her final commercial campaign was for American Express, in which she was photographed by Annie Leibovitz.

Discography

Collaborations

Fitzgerald's most famous collaborations were with the trumpeter Louis Armstrong, the guitarist Joe Pass, and the bandleaders Count Basie and Duke Ellington.

Fitzgerald recorded three Verve studio albums with Armstrong, two albums of standards (1956's ''Ella and Louis'' and 1957's ''Ella and Louis Again''), and a third album featured music from the Gershwin musical ''Porgy and Bess''. Fitzgerald also recorded a number of sides with Armstrong for Decca in the early 1950s.

Fitzgerald is sometimes referred to as the quintessential swing singer, and her meetings with Count Basie are highly regarded by critics. Fitzgerald features on one track on Basie's 1957 album ''One O'Clock Jump'', while her 1963 album ''Ella and Basie!'' is remembered as one of her greatest recordings. With the 'New Testament' Basie band in full swing, and arrangements written by a young Quincy Jones, this album proved a respite from the 'Songbook' recordings and constant touring that Fitzgerald was engaged in during this period. Fitzgerald and Basie also collaborated on the 1972 album ''Jazz at Santa Monica Civic '72'', and on the 1979 albums ''Digital III at Montreux'', ''A Classy Pair'' and ''A Perfect Match''.

Fitzgerald and Joe Pass recorded four albums together toward the end of Fitzgerald's career. She recorded several albums with piano accompaniment, but a guitar proved the perfect melodic foil for her. Fitzgerald and Pass appeared together on the albums ''Take Love Easy'' (1973), ''Easy Living'' (1986), ''Speak Love'' (1983) and ''Fitzgerald and Pass... Again'' (1976).

Fitzgerald and Duke Ellington recorded two live albums, and two studio albums. Her ''Duke Ellington Songbook'' placed Ellington firmly in the canon known as the Great American Songbook, and the 1960s saw Fitzgerald and the 'Duke' meet on the Côte d'Azur for the 1966 album ''Ella and Duke at the Cote D'Azur'', and in Sweden for ''The Stockholm Concert, 1966''. Their 1965 album ''Ella at Duke's Place'' is also extremely well received.

Fitzgerald had a number of famous jazz musicians and soloists as sidemen over her long career. The trumpeters Roy Eldridge and Dizzy Gillespie, the guitarist Herb Ellis, and the pianists Tommy Flanagan, Oscar Peterson, Lou Levy, Paul Smith, Jimmy Rowles, and Ellis Larkins all worked with Ella mostly in live, small group settings.

Possibly Fitzgerald's greatest unrealized collaboration (in terms of popular music) was a studio or live album with Frank Sinatra. The two appeared on the same stage only periodically over the years, in television specials in 1958 and 1959, and again on 1967's ''A Man and His Music + Ella + Jobim'', a show that also featured Antonio Carlos Jobim. Pianist Paul Smith has said, "Ella loved working with [Frank]. Sinatra gave her his dressing room on ''A Man and His Music'' and couldn’t do enough for her." When asked, Norman Granz would cite "complex contractual reasons" for the fact that the two artists never recorded together. Fitzgerald's appearance with Sinatra and Count Basie in June 1974 for a series of concerts at Caesar's Palace, Las Vegas was seen as an important incentive for Sinatra to return from his self-imposed retirement of the early 1970s. The shows were a great success, and September 1975 saw them gross $1,000,000 in two weeks on Broadway, in a triumvirate with the Count Basie Orchestra.

Awards, citations and honors

Fitzgerald won thirteen Grammy awards, including one for Lifetime Achievement in 1967. Other major awards and honors she received during her career were the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts Medal of Honor Award, National Medal of Art, first Society of Singers Lifetime Achievement Award, named "Ella" in her honor, Presidential Medal of Freedom, and the George and Ira Gershwin Award for Lifetime Musical Achievement, UCLA Spring Sing.

Ella Fitzgerald was a quiet but ardent supporter of many charities and non-profit organizations, including the American Heart Association and the United Negro College Fund. In 1993, she established the "Ella Fitzgerald Charitable Foundation" which continues to fund programs that perpetuate Ella's ideals.

Tributes

In 1997, Newport News, Virginia created a music festival with Christopher Newport University to honor Ella Fitzgerald in her birth city. The Ella Fitzgerald Music Festival is designed to teach the region's youth of the musical legacy of Fitzgerald and jazz. Past performers at the week-long festival include: Diana Krall, Arturo Sandoval, Jean Carne, Phil Woods, Aretha Franklin, Freda Payne, Cassandra Wilson, Ethel Ennis, David Sanborn, Jane Monheit, Dianne Reeves, Dee Dee Bridgewater, Ramsey Lewis, Patti Austin, and Ann Hampton Callaway

Ann Hampton Callaway, Dee Dee Bridgewater, and Patti Austin have all recorded albums in tribute to Fitzgerald. Callaway's album ''To Ella with Love'' (1996) features fourteen jazz standards made popular by Fitzgerald, and the album also features the trumpeter Wynton Marsalis. Bridgewater's album ''Dear Ella'' (1997) featured many musicians that were closely associated with Fitzgerald during her career, including the pianist Lou Levy, the trumpeter Benny Powell, and Fitzgerald's second husband, the double bassist Ray Brown. Bridgewater's following album, ''Live at Yoshi's'', was recorded live on April 25, 1998, what would have been Fitzgerald's 81st birthday. Patti Austin's album, ''For Ella'' (2002) features 11 songs most immediately associated with Fitzgerald, and a twelfth song, "Hearing Ella Sing" is Austin's tribute to Fitzgerald. The album was nominated for a Grammy. In 2007 ''We All Love Ella'', was released, a tribute album recorded for the 90th anniversary of Fitzgerald's birth. It featured artists such as Michael Bublé, Natalie Cole, Chaka Khan, Gladys Knight, Diana Krall, k.d. lang, Queen Latifah, Ledisi, Dianne Reeves, Linda Ronstadt, and Lizz Wright, collating songs most readily associated with the "First Lady of Song".

The folk singer Odetta's album ''To Ella'' (1998) is dedicated to Fitzgerald, but features no songs associated with her. Fitzgerald's long serving accompanist Tommy Flanagan affectionately remembered Fitzgerald on his album ''Lady be Good...For Ella'' (1994).

Fitzgerald is also referred to on the 1987 song "Ella, elle l'a" by French singer France Gall and the Belgian singer Kate Ryan, the 1976 Stevie Wonder hit "Sir Duke" from his album ''Songs in the Key of Life'', and the song "I Love Being Here With You", written by Peggy Lee and Bill Schluger. Sinatra's 1986 recording of "Mack the Knife" from his album ''L.A. Is My Lady'' (1984) includes a homage to some of the song's previous performers, including 'Lady Ella' herself. She is also honored in the song "First Lady" by Canadian artist Nikki Yanofsky.

In 2008, the Downing-Gross Cultural Arts Center in Newport News named its brand new 276-seat theater the Ella Fitzgerald Theater. The theater is located several blocks away from her birthplace on Marshall Avenue. The Grand Opening performers (October 11 & 12, 2008) were Roberta Flack and Queen Esther Marrow.

USPS stamp and Yonkers statue

There is a statue of Fitzgerald in Yonkers, the city in which she grew up. It is located southeast of the main entrance to the Amtrak/Metro-North Railroad station. On January 10, 2007, the United States Postal Service announced that Fitzgerald would be honored with her own 39-cent postage stamp. The stamp was released in April 2007 as part of the Postal Service's Black Heritage series.

Filmography

! Year	! Film	! Role	! Notes and awards
	''Ride 'Em Cowboy''	Ruby
		Maggie Jackson
		Singer
	''Let No Man Write My Epitaph''	Flora

References

Further reading

Nicholson, Stuart. (1996) ''Ella Fitzgerald''. Gollancz. ISBN 0-575-40032-3

Gourse, Leslie. (1998) ''The Ella Fitzgerald Companion: Seven Decades of Commentary''. Music Sales Ltd. ISBN 0-02-864625-8

Johnson, J. Wilfred. (2001) ''Ella Fitzgerald: A Complete Annotated Discography''. McFarland & Co Inc. ISBN 0-7864-0906-1

External links

The official website of the Ella Fitzgerald Charitable Foundation

Ella Fitzgerald Complete Discography

Ella Fitzgerald: Twelve Essential Performances by Stuart Nicholson (Jazz.com).

Ella Fitzgerald at the Library of Congress

Official Web Site of Ella Fitzgerald

Ella Fitzgerald, The Official Ed Sullivan Show Website

Redsugar's Ella page

'Remembering Ella' by Phillip D. Atteberry

Todd's Ella Fitzgerald Lyrics Page

Ella Swings Gently - The Ella Fitzgerald Pages

Ella Fitzgerald Tribute CD Video Footage

New York Times article on Ella's early years

Listen to Big Band Serenade podcast, episode 6 Includes complete NBC remote broadcast of "Ella Fitzgerald & her Orchestra" from the Roseland Ballroom (or download)

Category:1917 births Category:1996 deaths Category:African American singers Category:African American female singers Category:American amputees Category:American female singers Category:American gospel singers Category:American jazz singers Category:American singers Category:American singer-songwriters Category:Bandleaders Category:Blind people Category:Burials at Inglewood Park Cemetery Category:Capitol Records artists Category:Deaths from diabetes Category:Decca Records artists Category:George Peabody Medal winners Category:Grammy Award winners Category:Torch singers Category:Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award winners Category:Kennedy Center honorees Category:Musicians from Virginia Category:Pablo Records artists Category:People from Newport News, Virginia Category:People from Yonkers, New York Category:Presidential Medal of Freedom recipients Category:Swing singers Category:Traditional pop music singers Category:United States National Medal of Arts recipients Category:Vaudeville performers Category:Verve Records artists Category:Scat singers Category:Women in jazz

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Name	Yann Tiersen
Background	solo_singer
Birth name	Yann Pierre Tiersen
Born	June 23, 1970
Origin	Brest, Brittany, France
Instrument	Piano, Violin, Accordion, Guitar, Toy piano, Voice and various others.
Genre	Minimalist, Avant-Garde,
Occupation	Musician, Songwriter
Years active	1995–present
Label	VirginANTI-Mute Records
Website	Official website }}

Yann Tiersen (born 23 June 1970) is a musician from France. His musical career is split between studio albums, collaborations and film soundtracks with a distinctive sound that is ever evolving. It can be recognized by its use of a large variety of instruments; primarily the guitar, synthesizer or violin together with instruments like the melodica, xylophone, toy piano, harpsichord, accordion and typewriter. Tiersen is often mistaken as a composer of soundtracks, himself saying "I'm not a composer and I really don't have a classical background," but his real focus is on touring and studio albums which just happen to often be suitable for film; his most famous soundtrack for the film Amélie was primarily made up of tracks taken from his first studio albums.

Biography

Tiersen was born in Brittany, France, in 1970 and received classical training at several musical academies, including those in Rennes, Nantes, and Boulogne. In the early 1980s as a teenager he was influenced by the post-punk culture of bands like The Stooges and Joy Division. He has Belgian and Norwegian origins.

Before releasing scores under his own name, Tiersen recorded background music for a number of plays and short films, such as ''La Vie Rêvée des Anges'' (1998, Erick Zonca), ''Alice et Martin'' (1998, André Téchiné), ''Qui Plume la Lune?'' (Christine Carrière, 1999).

He rose to domestic fame upon the release of his third album, ''Le Phare'', but remained relatively unknown outside France until the release of his score for the film ''Amélie'' in 2001, which was a mixture of both new and previously released material.

Tiersen favors the piano, accordion, and violin, but is also known for his experimentation and use of obscure and found instruments like the ondes martenot and the typewriter.

Yann Tiersen's list of collaborators continues to grow album after album (see discography below for details). While composing his fifth album, ''L'absente'', Tiersen lent his musical talent to Françoiz Breut and Les Têtes Raides for their own albums. His 2005 album, ''Les Retrouvailles'', featured vocals from Stuart Staples of Tindersticks, Jane Birkin, and Elizabeth Fraser, formerly of Cocteau Twins. Tiersen also played piano on Staples' solo album, ''Lucky Dog Recordings 03-04''. In 2004 he also released a collaborative CD with American singer-songwriter Shannon Wright.

His live performances vary greatly. Sometimes he is accompanied by an orchestra and many guest collaborators, like Dominique A. Other times, he offers the more frequent minimalistic sessions, usually accompanied only by a drummer/bassist and a guitarist, with Tiersen switching seamlessly between piano, accordion, and violin for his lighter songs, and electric guitar for his louder pieces (where his Avant-Garde Music meet some rock sonorities). Lately, however, he has almost banished piano, accordion and violin and focused more on his electric guitar instead, as visible in his 2009-2010 Live Tours.

Yann Tiersen was married to Belgian actress Natacha Régnier, but they have since been divorced. They have a daughter, Lise born in 2002.

''Dust Lane'' 2010

October 2010 saw the release of Tiersen’s sixth studio album titled ''Dust Lane''. The album was two years in the making and was largely recorded in Ushant, France. Further parts were recorded in the Philippines. The album is preoccupied with mortality; during the recording sessions Tiersen lost his mother and a close friend. The recordings started out as simple song based tracks with Tiersen playing acoustic guitar, mandolin and bouzouki. New layers were added to the recordings creating a more complex sound. Then an array of vintage synthesisers and electric guitars were added to create further textures. The album was released by Mute Records in Europe and Anti- Records in the US. The record was promoted in a tour beginning in October 2010, starting in New York. Tiersen has been chosen by Jeff Mangum of Neutral Milk Hotel to perform at the All Tomorrow's Parties festival that he will curate in December 2011 in Minehead, England.

Discography

Studio albums

''La Valse des Monstres'' (1995)

''Rue des Cascades'' (1996)

*featured performer: Claire Pichet.

''Le Phare'' (1998)

*featured performers: Claire Pichet, Dominique A.

''L'Absente'' (2001)

*featured performers: orchestral group Synaxis, Lisa Germano, Sacha Toorop, Dominique A, Neil Hannon, Natacha Régnier, Têtes Raides

''Les Retrouvailles'' (2005)

*featured performers: Stuart Staples of Tindersticks, Jane Birkin, Elizabeth Fraser of Cocteau Twins, Christophe Miossec, Dominique A.

''Dust Lane'' (2010)

''Skyline (album)'' (TBA)

Soundtracks

''Amélie Original Soundtrack'' (2001)

''Good Bye Lenin! Original Soundtrack'' (2003)

*featured performer: Claire Pichet.

''Tabarly'' (2008)

Live albums

''Black Session: Yann Tiersen'' (1999)

*Black Session radio performance

*featured performers: Neil Hannon (of The Divine Comedy), Bertrand Cantat (of Noir Désir), Françoiz Breut, The Married Monk, Têtes Raides and a string quartet.

''C’était ici'' (2002)

*live compilation album

*featured performers: 35-member orchestral group Synaxis, conducted by Guillaume Bourgogne. Claire Pichet, Christine Ott, Christian Quermalet, Marc Sens, Nicholas Stevens, Jean-François Assy, Renaud Lhoest, Oliver Tilkin, Ronan le bars, Têtes Raides, Dominique A, Lisa Germano.

''On Tour'' (2006)

*featured performers: Elizabeth Fraser of Cocteau Twins , Diam's , Katel, DD la Fleur

Singles and EPs

''Tout est Calme'' (1999)

*collaboration with The Married Monk

*other featured performers: the Vienna Symphony Orchestra, Lisa Germano, Neil Hannon (of The Divine Comedy), Dominique A, Françoiz Breut, Têtes Raides, Sacha Toorop (of Zop Hopop), the actress Natacha Regnier, Christian Quermalet (of The Married Monk), Marc Sens (a Serge Tessot-Gay collaborator), Christine Ott and a string quartet.

''3 titres inédits au profit de la FIDH'' (part of the ''On Aime, On Aide'' collection, composed to raise funds for the FIDH, sold exclusively at Fnac) (2003)

''PALESTINE'' (vinyl EP) (2010)

Collaborations

''Bästard'' (EP) (1999)

*collaboration with Bästard

''Yann Tiersen & Shannon Wright'' (2004)

*collaboration with Shannon Wright.

''This Immortal Coil'' (2010)

Contributions

''One Trip, One Noise'' (by Noir Désir) (1997)

*"A ton étoile" (arrangements, strings, vibraphone, bell, mandolin, electric guitar and bass)

''Vingt à Trente Mille Jours'' (by Françoiz Breut) (2000)

*"Porsmouth" (vibraphone), "Vingt à trente mille jours" (vibraphone), "L'heure bleue" (violin), "Le verre pilé" (vibraphone); arrangements

''Gratte-poil'' (by Têtes Raides) (2001)

*"Cabaret des nues" (violin)

''The Married Monk'' (by The Married Monk) (2001)

*"Roma Amor" (strings, vibraphone), "Holidays" (strings) and "Cyro's Request" (vibraphone)

''Les oiseaux de passage (tribute to Georges Brassens)

*cover of "Le parapluie" with Natacha Régnier

''Absent Friends'' (by The Divine Comedy) (2004)

*"Sticks & Stones" (accordion); "Anthem for Bored Youth" (accordion), a track appearing only on the French limited edition

''The Endless Rise of the Sun'' (by Smooth) (2006)

*"The Endless Rise of the Sun" (keyboards)

''Raides à la ville'' (by Katel) (2006)

*"La Vielle" (violin)

''13m²'' (by David Delabrosse) (2006)

*production and arrangements

''Solitude Nomade'' (by Christine Ott) (2009)

*"Pensées sauvages" (violin)

''Finistérien'' (by Miossec) (2009)

*music and arrangements

''Li(f)e'' (by Sage Francis) (2010)

*production and arrangements on "The Best Of Times"

DVDs

''La Traversée'' (2005) (by Aurélie du Boys, about the recording and composition of ''Les Retrouvailles'' in Ouessant)

''On Tour'' (2006) (by Aurélie du Boys, about the tour)

References

External links

Yann Tiersen's official homepage

Yann Tiersen Sheet Music Archive compiled by Vladimir Yatsina

Concert photos by Laurent Orseau (Black Session)

Concert photos by Laurent Orseau (La Route du Rock 1998)

Music Video for La Noyée from the ''Amelie'' soundtrack

Music Video for Comptine d'un autre été: l'après midi from the ''Amelie'' soundtrack

Article on Yann Tiersen at Everything2.com

Article on Yann Tiersen and piano at Scribd

Yann Tiersen in Lebanon Event Review

Red Alert - Live Review

Category:1970 births Category:Living people Category:French musicians Category:Breton musicians Category:French film score composers Category:Anti-Zionism Category:Antisemitism in France Category:French people of Belgian descent Category:French people of Dutch descent Category:French people of Norwegian descent Category:People from Brest, France

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