Alan Parker was an English filmmaker with a small but highly-rated output.
I give you “The Chase”, an electronic instrumental written by Giorgio Moroder for Parker’s film Midnight Express (1978).
Midnight Express, a story of drug smuggling and dirty Turkish prisons, was banned in Turkey under Article 301 of the Turkish Penal Code.
This caused a strain on US–Turkish relations.
CP Lee, was a British musician, author, broadcaster and lecturer from Manchester, England.
He was co-author of the witty composition “Gerry and the Holograms” (1979) which shows similarities with “Blue Monday” (1983) but then without the nagging tone which makes the latter nearly impossible to listen to in full.
CP Lee was also an authority on Dylan, a Dylanologist one might say. His comments after Dylan received the Nobel Prize were both deep and sharp.
He also contributed marginally to Video Nasties: Moral Panic, Censorship & Videotape (2010), an insightful documentary on the video nasty phenomenon.
Bent Fabric (1924 – 2020) was a Danish composer and pianist.
Malik B. was an American rapper and singer who was a founding member of The Roots.
Although he did some solo work, his most interesting work was with that group, where he was a rapper rather than a song-writer.
If you are unfamiliar with the work of The Roots, check “The Seed” (2002).
Olivia de Havilland was a French-British-American actress.
She is best known for her part in Gone with the Wind (1939).
However, I remember her most fondly for her part in the psychological horror movie Hush…Hush, Sweet Charlotte (1964). In that film she is the evil Miriam Deering.
Above is the scene in Hush … Hush in which Olivia and Bette Davis get rid of the supposedly dead body.
Peter Green (1946 – 2020) was an English blues rock singer-songwriter and guitarist.
He was the co-founder of Fleetwood Mac.
He is perhaps best known for penning “Black Magic Woman” (1968).
However, I remember him most fondly for his instrumental “Albatross” (1968).
Dobby Dobson was a Jamaican reggae singer and record producer.
His signature song was “Loving Pauper” (c. 1970)
Brigid Berlin was an American artist and Warhol superstar.
After moving to Hotel Chelsea, Brigid Berlin took on the nickname Brigid Polk because of her habit of giving out ‘pokes’, injections of Vitamin B and amphetamines provided to her by the many Dr. Feelgoods New York sported at the time. One of these Dr. Feelgoods was Max Jacobson.
Zizi Jeanmaire was a French ballet dancer and entertainer.
She is best-known for her song “Mon truc en plumes” (1961) but I give you a version of “Élisa” (1969), written by Serge Gainsbourg.
J. J. Lionel was a Belgian musician whose song “La danse des canards” (1981) is one of the best-selling singles ever in France.
There is popular music and and then there is “danse des canards” popular, almost as popular as “Hava Nagila”.
Both are songs everyone knows but no one can remember where it originates.