Adrian Lyne’s ‘Flashdance’ widens the eyes. Equal pans of shamelessness, brainlessness, and perverse energy have been scrambled into a movie that’s laughable, preposterous and truly awful.
Oldies & vintage music
Who had one of these ‘My Name Records’ when they were kids? We found a few vintage covers from personalized 45 RPM record singles featuring Captain Kangaroo songs!
The long-expected wedding day of Elvis Presley and Priscilla Presley (neé Beaulieu) was a surprise event that brought the King of Rock and Roll and his queen together at last.
This classic advice from the 1970s helped consumers choose and take care of audio cassette tapes.
While Lisa Marie Presley had very impressive parents – Elvis and Priscilla Presley – that’s not what made her so memorable. It was all about her presence: her strength, dedication, and independent spirit.
Living rooms changed entirely when these vintage console stereos came on the market – they were technology and furniture all in one!
Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, a fanciful children’s movie from the ’60s, starred Dick Van Dyke as a crackpot inventor who builds a magical flying car. This classic musical has stayed in the hearts and minds of millions.
They’re known by many names: 45 rpm record inserts, single record adapters, 45 rpm spindle adapters, spider inserts… all terms for the thingie that goes in the middle of an oldie! See a bunch of them here, and find out mroe!
Here’s what it was like to see The Doors in concert back in the 60s & 70s, when the young Los Angeles quartet was strange and poetic and energetic – and on fire.
Old Halloween songs never die – they just reappear on the chart every decade or so! Such is the case with Bobby ‘Boris’ Pickett’s million-seller, ‘Monster Mash.’ Here’s the story – and meet the singer!
Even in his late 70s, Barry Manilow still performs relentlessly — much to the delight of “Fan-ilows” everywhere. Check out this bicentennial-year interview he gave early in his singing career.
People were used to big records, but then the music industry wanted everyone to adopt a new format and a new size, and came out with 45 RPM record players and 7″ vinyl records with a big hole in the middle.
Star Hits magazine was a riff on the hugely popular British music mag, Smash Hits… and in the ’80s, America’s teens loved it. Here’s a look at what was hot back in the day!
These old mail-order record clubs offered super-cheap music to the masses – on vinyl, l8-track tapes, cassettes, and, finally, CDs. But there was a catch.
Despite a slow start, by the mid-’80s, REO Speedwagon’s hit singles ‘Keep On Loving You’ and ‘Can’t Fight This Feeling’ had topped the charts, and they were known across the globe. Here’s the story.
Footloose stars Kevin Bacon as a dynamic Chicago teen transplanted to a morally numb heartland town, where the local ministerhas banned rock dancing.
The Banana Splits Adventure Hour lasted only 31 episodes, but its funky psychedelia had a lasting impact. Take a look – and a listen!
Though the name might not be up there in lights as bright as Buddy Holly, Elvis Presley, and Chuck Berry, Bill Haley & His Comets certainly deserve to be mentioned in the same sentence. Here’s why!
Reel-to-reel tape recorders hit the commercial market in the 1940s — and their evolution was boosted by the financial support of none other than Bing Crosby, who saw great potential in the technology.
We have heard Mathis’ voice for years – but who’s the man behind that rich, smooth sound? Find out more about this extraordinarily talented singer here, and see Johnny Mathis as he lived in his Hollywood home back in the 1970s.
Here’s a look back at the group Tommy James and the Shondells, who were behind top charting singles like Hanky Panky, Crimson and Clover, Mony Mony, and Crystal Blue Persuasion.
Back in the 1960s & 1970s, if you asked someone on the mainland about Hawaiian music, chances are the first (and probably only) songs they’d know would be by Don Ho. The singer’s smooth, laid-back style delighted millions. Find out how it all began here.
In the 1956 movie musical Carousel, Oklahoma stars Shirley Jones and Gordon MacRae were again teamed up for a Rodgers and Hammerstein classic. Also see an interview with Miss Jones from the same year.
The Foundations were a band that burst onto the music scene in the late 1960s with a fantastic soul sound that was straight out of Motown. Except it wasn’t.
See Fred Astaire in a clip from 1946’s ‘Blue Skies,’ performing ‘Puttin’ On The Ritz’ – a song associated with him like no other – and find out more about the film itself.
What was the Partridge Family TV series about? In an eggshell: Five siblings made the big-time playing rock ‘n’ roll music, and, led by their mom, toured the country. Squabbles, catchy tunes and hijinks ensued.
Johnny Cash and Miss June Carter, country and Western music singers who teamed up on a Grammy-winning record, teamed up in marriage, too. Here’s a look back at their time together!
Rock ‘n’ rollers Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens & Big Bopper died in a plane crash in 1959 – memorialized as ‘the day the music died.’ Here’s a look at some of the news stories from the time, and photos of the plane.
Back in the ’60s, The Mamas and The Papas were no ordinary band or singing group – they had that certain extra something that made sure their music would stand the test of time. Here’s a look back.
The ’80s hit song ‘Fish Heads’ didn’t just sound strange, but it was co-created by vintage ‘Lost in Space’ TV show actor Billy Mumy. Find out more here!
Buddy Holly was one of rock and roll’s early pioneers. He remains influential to this day, despite his untimely death in a plane crash. Here’s a look back at his career!
Check out some classic hit songs that all have a common theme: a lot of us have misheard the lyrics, so we’re singing them wrong – sometimes hilariously so.
The Godfather of Soul. Mr Dynamite. The Hardest Working Man in Show Business. Whatever you called him, James Brown was a music legend who released hit records in four different decades.
If you’ve been on social media and have been seeing the term ‘sea shanties’ a lot lately, get the basics here about these old songs that have been around for centuries.
When the old Victrola record players were first introduced, those turntables were some cutting-edge tech. Here’s a look at the history of the famous Victor Talking Machines!
In the fifties, people wanted to know: What was rock ‘n’ roll music? Where did this wild dance noise come from – and was it safe for the kids? Should it be banned, or was it just a fad?
The dance music of the Edison Phonograph is irresistible. It offers the most fascinating waltzes and spirited two-steps of the world’s, great composers as well as the popular dance music of the hour.
Just 18 years old, Aretha Franklin moves flawlessly in her vocals — from spiritual, to blues to jazz and to pop; and her ability as a pianist is something more to reckon with. Aretha is the girl to watch!
Here’s how to choose a turntable that will make your vintage vinyl records come alive, based on all the retro tips on what really made a difference back in the day.
While orchestra leader Glenn Miller himself disappeared, his music has done rather the opposite – reaching and speaking to generations well beyond his untimely death during WWII.
When Jimi Hendrix died in 1970, the world was shocked that such a young star could have blazed so brightly, but then burned out so fast. Here’s a look back.
At just 27 years old and still at the start at what could have been a long career, singer Janis Joplin was found dead at home, and the music world mourned for years.
In 1973, The Mamas & The Papas singer Michelle Phillips took on a new role – that of the lead actress in the movie Dillinger. Here’s what she said at the time.
Johnny Cash kicked off his country-music series, The Johnny Cash TV Show, with guests Bob Dylan, singer-songwriters Joni Mitchell and Doug Kershaw, and comedienne Fannie Flagg. Here, see a video performance with Roy Orbison.
Live Aid in 1985: Feed the world The goal of the Live Aid concerts was to raise money to help relieve the ongoing famine in
See Jimi Hendrix play ‘The Star-Spangled Banner’ live at Woodstock on August 18, 1969 – and what he thought of his own performance.
Lennie’s Story: How Hub Prodigy, Bernstein, became “Nation’s No. 1 Musician.” What kind of man, husband and father is Boston’s musical genius, Leonard Bernstein? When
Nothing stays the same for very long — not the world, not the blues, not love, not a petite young Texas girl named Janis Joplin, who had ‘such a pretty voice,’ according to her mother.
Here are vintage autographs of eleven lost music legends, many gone far too soon. How many of these signatures do you wish you had?
Beatlemania, a generally harmless form of madness for The Beatles, which deluged the United States in 1964, was nothing short of a phenomenon.
During a concert in 1975, a music reviewer wrote of Bruce Springsteen, ‘I have seldom if ever heard as long or as feverish applause for anyone anywhere as after his numbers.’
As one father of a pre-teen daughter wrote, ‘The Beatles proved again that their singing, if it can be called that, provokes mass hysteria in the young.’
