“Makin’ Whoopee” is a song first popularised by Eddie Cantor in the 1928 musical Whoopee!. Gus Kahn wrote the lyrics and Walter Donaldson composed the music for the song as well as for the entire musical. The musical was based on Owen Davis’s play, “The Nervous Wreck”. Donaldson was a prolific and popular American songwriter, […]
Jacob Collier
Jacob Collier is a British singer, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, producer and educator. His music incorporates a combination of jazz and elements from other musical genres, and often features extensive use of re-harmonisations and close harmony. He is known for his energetic live performances, in which he often conducts the audience to sing harmony or play percussion […]
Le Onde
Le Onde (Italian “The Waves”) is the title track of an album released in 1996 by the Italian pianist and composer Ludovico Einaudi. Trained at the Conservatorio Verdi in Milan, Einaudi began his career as a classical composer, later incorporating other styles and genres such as pop, rock, folk, and world music. Einaudi has composed […]
Hot Stuff
“Hot Stuff” is a song by Pete Bellotte, Harold Faltermeyer, and Keith Forsey released as the lead single by American singer Donna Summer on her seventh studio album Bad Girls, produced by English producer Pete Bellotte and Italian producer Giorgio Moroder in 1979 through Casablanca Records. Up to that point, Summer had mainly been associated […]
Largo Al Factotum
“Largo al factotum” (Make way for the factotum) is an aria (cavatina) from The Barber of Seville by Gioachino Rossini, sung at the first entrance of the title character, Figaro. The repeated “Figaro”s before the final patter section are an icon in popular culture of operatic singing. The term “factotum” refers to a general servant […]
Boogie Wonderland
“Boogie Wonderland” is a song by American band Earth, Wind & Fire with the Emotions, released in April 1979 on Columbia Records as the first single from their ninth album, I Am (1979). The song peaked at number 14 on the US Billboard dance chart, number six on the Hot 100, and number two on […]
Anna Lapwood
Anna Lapwood MBE is a British organist, choir director and television and radio presenter, whose recordings have reached a wide audience on social media since she was appointed as an associate artist at the Royal Albert Hall in London in 2022. Lapwood was born in 1995 at High Wycombe. Her father is an Anglican clergyman […]
Modjo
Modjo was a French house music duo formed in Paris in 1999 by producer Romain Tranchart (born 9 June 1976) and singer Yann Destagnol (born 14 July 1978). They are best known for their biggest hit, “Lady (Hear Me Tonight)”, released in 2000, along with other successful singles such as “Chillin’” and “No More Tears”, […]
Blue Skies
“Blue Skies” is a popular song, written by Irving Berlin in 1926. “Blue Skies” is one of many popular songs whose lyrics use a “bluebird of happiness” as a symbol of cheer: “Bluebirds singing a song/Nothing but bluebirds all day long.” The sunny optimism of the lyrics are undercut by the minor key giving the […]
Is You Is Or Is You Ain’t My Baby
Is You Is or Is You Ain’t My Baby” is a song written by Louis Jordan and Billy Austin. The song’s first recording, by Jordan, was made on October 4, 1943. It was released as the B-side of a single with “G.I. Jive” with the title “Is You Is or Is You Ain’t (Ma’ Baby)”. […]