One Hit Wonders

Reel 2 Real was a house music duo with rap music and reggae influences. The act’s core member is producer and DJ Erick Morillo from New York City, who spent a portion of his childhood living in Colombia. Reel 2 Real is best known for the ragga-influenced house track I Like to Move It, which featured Trinidad and Tobago native and rapper Mark Quashie, also known as The Mad Stuntman. The song was an international smash and crossed over to the Hot 100 in 1994, peaking at #89. The song would later be used in DreamWorks’ CGI animated film Madagascar (2005), making it a hit once again in 2005. In all, The Mad Stuntman was featured on four of Reel 2 Real’s top 10 dance hits. Later singles featured Barbara Tucker, Charlotte Small and Proyecto Uno. The Reel 2 Real alias was abandoned in 1996, after which Morillo spent a few years establishing himself as an underground DJ.

Sananda Maitreya (formerly known as Terence Trent D’Arby and born Terence Trent Howard on March 15, 1962) is an American-born singer-songwriter currently living in Milan, Italy. He is recognizable through his trademark voice resembling that of Sam Cooke, and the fact that, like such artists as Stevie Wonder, Todd Rundgren and Prince before him, he produces his own albums and plays most of the instruments.

As Terence Trent D’Arby

His debut solo album, Introducing the Hardline According to Terence Trent D’Arby, released in 1987, is his best-known and, in commercial terms, most successful work. The album, which produced such hit as “Wishing Well,” sold over a million copies in the first three days of its release, and its sales currently total over 12 million. The album also earned Maitreya a Grammy Award in March 1988 in the category Best R&B Vocal Performance, Male. In that same year, he earned a Soul Train Award nomination for Best New Artist.

Maitreya’s follow-up was the somewhat more experimental and serious Neither Fish Nor Flesh: A Soundtrack of Love, Faith, Hope & Destruction (1989). It gathered generally hostile reviews from the critics, and was not commercially as successful as its predecessor. Nevertheless, it sold over 2 million copies.

It took four more years and a move to Los Angeles until his next project, Symphony or Damn: Exploring the Tension Inside the Sweetness (1993) was released. The record touched many of the issues that had been raised also in Neither Fish Nor Flesh, but was musically more straightforward and rock-influenced than its predecessors. It gathered favourable reviews and gained much airplay in major music stations.

In 1995 Maitreya released Vibrator, which largely followed Symphony or Damn in its musical direction. It was well received, but like the previous album, failed to return the artist back to the public status that he had enjoyed at the time of his first release.

During the 1990s the relations between the artist and his record label Columbia Records became strained, eventually leading to the artist’s departure in 1996. This was followed by a four-year spell on Java Records, during which he recorded Terence Trent D’Arby’s Solar Return, which was not released. In 2000, he bought the rights to his unreleased album and left the record company as well as his then-management-team Lippman Entertainment.

In 1999, Maitreya was briefly hired by INXS to replace his friend, late vocalist Michael Hutchence, so the band could play at the opening of facilities for the Sydney Olympics.

[edit] As Sananda Maitreya

Following a series of dreams, the artist adopted the name Sananda Maitreya. His name was legally changed to that on October 4, 2001.

2001 also saw Maitreya moving back to Europe and Germany, as he resettled in Munich and started his own independent record label, Sananda Records. The year also marked his first album release in six years, as the unreleased Terence Trent D’Arby’s Soular Return was revamped into Wildcard. The album, which received a warm critical welcome, was at first available for free through his website, and later gained also a commercial release through a one-album distribution deal with Universal Music.

In 2002 Maitreya moved to Milan, Italy, and began working on his next project, Angels & Vampires - Volume I. Rough demo versions of the songs were initially released through Weedshare, allowing the fans to get a glimpse of the work as it evolved. In July 29, 2005, the fully mastered album was finally released through his webshop utilizing the mp3 format.

In July 2005 Maitreya started working on Angels & Vampires - Volume II, he released chapter after chapter online as soon he finished recording the songs. On April 29, 2006 he released the fully finished and mastered album in his webshop.

Source: Wikipedia

The group’s story started in 1985, when William Naraine (singer), Franco Amato (musician, born in La Spezia on 21st of August 1963, zodiac sign Leo) and Andrea de Antoni (DJ, born in La Spezia on 9th of October 1966, zodiac sign Libra) began their artistic collaboration.

In 1991 the boys met the producer Roberto Zanetti and their success was immediate. In December of the same year, Please Don’t Go was recorded. The song was released in January 1992 and it was an instant hit. Double You began touring all across Europe and appeared in many TV shows around the world. They became the phenomenon of the world dance scene. With more than three million copies sold, Please Don’t Go earned many gold and platinum records in such countries as : Germany, France, the Netherlands, Spain, Belgium, Switzerland, Austria, Greece, Turkey, East-Europe, the whole of Latin America (no country excluded) and many states of Africa and Asia. The record also sold in North America (top ten maxi sales), in Israel (# 12 ), and in the UK (n° 2 on the Cool Cuts Chart). After all, Please Don’t Go was the most danced song in 1992.

Swing Out Sister is a British sophisti-pop musical group best known worldwide for their 1987 song “Breakout”, which was their only song to reach the US top 10.

Although Swing Out Sister is currently a duo, they began as a trio in the UK. The group was formed by Andy Connell (keyboards) and Martin Jackson (drums), and were later joined by Corinne Drewery (vocals). (The name came from a 1945 movie starring Arthur Treacher, called Swing Out, Sister.) Both Connell and Jackson had been playing in other bands prior to forming SOS, while Drewery was actually a fashion designer before she became the band’s lead vocalist.

Late 2005 saw Swing Out Sister return to their studio in London to commence recording of their new CD, which has the working title of Even When Tonight Is Over.

The band planned on making a second tour of America in 2006, however due to recording commitments this had to be cancelled.

In 2006 they composed incidential music for the ITV1 drama The Outsiders, a new television drama featuring Nigel Harman. The music will be featured on their forthcoming album.

Katrina and the Waves were a pop rock band of the 1980s, best known for their smash hit “Walking on Sunshine” and their 1997 Eurovision Song Contest victory.

Formed in 1981 in Cambridge, England, the Waves were fronted by American-born singer Katrina Leskanich until she left the group in 1999. Their lead guitarist is Kimberley Rew, formerly of the Soft Boys.

In 1985 the group had a worldwide hit with the song “Walking on Sunshine“, a Top 10 UK success, still popular today as a feel-good summer track, used in numerous feature films and advertisements. A Grammy award nominee for “Best New Artist” followed, and several seasons of touring were followed by moderate sales of new releases. “Sun Street” was a UK Top 30 hit in 1986, though subsequent releases, including the infectious “Rock’n'Roll Girl” in 1988, failed to chart.

By the late nineties, the band had all but disappeared, but briefly surged back into the limelight by winning the Eurovision Song Contest for the United Kingdom on 3 May 1997 with the song “Love Shine A Light”. Reacting to the win, Katrina said it was the second landslide victory in a week; the song won by a record points margin, and Tony Blair had won the 1997 British general election two days previously.

Six years after the original band split up, Katrina formed a new group in an attempt to repeat the Waves’ Eurovision triumph, this time in Sweden. At the 2005 Melodifestivalen, the competition to select Sweden’s entry, the group failed to qualify directly from the fourth semi-final of the competition, and were eventually eliminated in a ’second-chance semi’. Having planned to call themselves “Katrina and the New Wave”, they dubbed themselves “Katrina and the Nameless” after legal objections from the original Waves.

In 2005, the storm surge of a storm named Hurricane Katrina devastated much of the Gulf Coast, including the city of New Orleans, Louisiana. The MSNBC news program Countdown with Keith Olbermann dubbed its coverage of the hurricane “Katrina and the Waves”, referring to the storm itself and its storm surge, and that name also appeared in numerous headlines and blog posts. As the Waves lead singer Katrina Leskanich now shares her name with the devastation, she was quoted in the New York Times as saying the following:

“The first time I opened the paper and saw ‘Katrina kills 9,’ it was a bit of a shock. It’s a very sad situation, but I’m sure the strength and good will of the survivors will turn it around. I hope that the true spirit of ‘Walking on Sunshine’ will prevail. I would hate for the title to be tinged with sadness, and I will have to do my own part to help turn that around.”

Diego Torres an Argentinean singer scored good with his cover of the song named “Por la vereda del sol” in a record called “Tratar de Estar Mejor” which sold over 500.000 copies.

Source: Wikipedia

Kim Carnes (born July 20, 1945 in Los Angeles, California) is an American singer-songwriter. She is noted for her distinctive, raspy voice which she attributes to many hours spent singing in smoky bars and clubs.

Carnes was a member of New Christy Minstrels from 1966 until 1970. Kenny Rogers was also a member, and during this time Carnes met and married Dave Ellingson, with whom she would write most of her songs. For a short while in the early 1970s, she and Ellingson formed the folk duo Kim and Dave, which was not successful. She began releasing albums during the early 1970s.
In 1981 she recorded the Jackie DeShannon and Donna Weiss song “Bette Davis Eyes“. As the first single released from the album Mistaken Identity, it spent 9 weeks at number one on the US singles charts and became a worldwide hit. The single went on to become the #1 bestseller for the year and won Grammy Awards for Song of the Year and Record of the Year.

It is ironic that Carnes’ best known and most popular song “Bette Davis Eyes“, written in 1974, was originally rejected by Carnes. It was only after a new instrumental arrangement was done by Bill Cuomo that Carnes agreed to record it and it became a huge hit. Bette Davis admitted to being a fan of the song and approached Carnes and the songwriters to thank them. Davis wrote to Carnes after the song was released and stated that she was very pleased with the song as it made her seem very up to date with her grandson. She had Carnes sing the song live for her at a tribute held just before her death.

Carnes continued to record and released several albums into the 1990s. Carnes had mild success with the following songs “Draw Of The Cards” No.28 in 1981, “Voyeur” a No.29 pop hit in 1982 and “Crazy in the Night (Barking at Airplanes)” at No.15 in 1985 which was the last song to hit the US Top 20.

These releases failed to reach the level of success of “Bette Davis Eyes“, but by this time she was a highly respected songwriter, and collaborated with such artists as Barbra Streisand.

In 2004, she re-appeared with a self-released album Chasin’ Wild Trains.

In August 2005, her 1981 single “Draw Of The Cards” hit #1 on the internet radio request site FreezeFrameRadio.com.

She currently resides in Nashville, Tennessee with husband Dave Ellingson. She has 2 sons, Collin and Ry.

Her son Ry is named after musican Ry Cooder, who guests on the song “Rough Edges” on the album “Barking At Airplanes” Son, Collin, is featured in the beginning of the song “Crazy in the Night”

Kim is hinted at in the Tori Amos song “Glory of the 80’s” It says, “In the glories of the 80’s, I may not have to die. I’ll clone myself like that blonde chick that sings Bette Davis Eyes”

Source: Wikipedia