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Just think of all the music that’s distinctly American. Jazz. Rock and roll. Motown. The blues. Zydeco. (And if we didn’t invent it here, we found a way to make it better.) We tap our toes, we dance, we thrill to the music of America.
Music: Rhapsody in Blue
If we take jazz to mean a free-form improvisation on a theme, then Rhapsody in Blue by George Gershwin (Great American Things,...
Read MoreAlbum: "Are You Experienced"
You know that feeling you get when you hear unknown music and you think, Wow. This changes everything. That’s the reaction I had upon...
Read MoreAlbum: "A Charlie Brown Christmas" Soundtrack
Even today, it doesn’t seem like a natural fit for a jazz soundtrack to accompany an animated Christmas show. Certainly the...
Read MoreSong: "White Christmas"
My favorite Christmas album in my childhood was Bing Crosby’s Merry Christmas, which was released as an LP in 1949 and has never...
Read MoreMusic: Quincy Jones
You could probably win a few bar bets with this question: What individual has the most Grammy Nominations? Yes, the answer is Quincy...
Read MoreSingers: Creedence Clearwater Revival
CCR didn’t have a long career – their first single (“Suzie Q”) made the charts in 1968, and they disbanded...
Read MoreAlbum: "Frank Sinatra: The Capitol Years"
It’s cheating in a way to have a “Best of” album honored here, but that’s not exactly what “The Capitol...
Read MoreSong: "Rock Around the Clock"
Here are two minutes and eight seconds that forever changed the music world. It’s sometimes said that “Rock Around the...
Read MoreMusic: Johnny Mercer
This Georgia boy brought a Southern sensibility to popular music in the 1930s-1960s, and became a noted singer as well. Primarily he was a...
Read MoreSinger: Loretta Lynn
Imagine growing up in a place called Butcher Holler, being married at age 13, having four children by the age of 19, and then...
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