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Petula Clark is a British singer, actress, and songwriter from Ewell, Surrey, England. She is still with us & will turn 92 in 2 weeks.

She started her professional career as a child performer and has had the longest career of any British entertainer, spanning more than 85 years.

In October 1942, at the age of 9, she made her radio debut while attending a BBC broadcast with her father. She was trying to send a message to an uncle who was stationed overseas, but the broadcast was delayed by an air raid. During the bombing the producer requested that someone perform to settle the audience and she volunteered a rendering of "Mighty Lak' a Rose". She then repeated her performance,launching a series of some 500 appearances in programs designed to entertain the troops.

She released her 1st single in 1949 but didn’t chart for the 1st time until 1954. She didn’t land on the US charts until she hit #1 in 1964 with Downtown & then it was off to the races as she became a big part of the British Invasion.

The song linked to here hit #11 for her in 1966. It was the 5th of what will eventually be 15 top 40 hits for her. She introduced the single on The Ed Sullivan Show broadcast of 27 February 1966. Thanks to Youtube, we can experience it again.

Wynton Kelly was a jazz pianist and composer from New York City. He died following an epileptic seizure, on April 12, 1971, aged 39.

He began playing professionally at the age of 12 and was pianist on a No. 1 R&B hit at the age of 16. His recording debut as a leader occurred three years later, around the time he started to become better known as an accompanist to singer Dinah Washington, and as a member of trumpeter Dizzy Gillespie's band.

He returned from a stint in the Army & picked up his career playing with other big names. Over the next few years, these included Cannonball Adderley, John Coltrane, Hank Mobley, Wes Montgomery, and Sonny Rollins, and vocalists Betty Carter, Billie Holiday, and Abbey Lincoln.

The trumpeter Wynton Marsalis was named after him.

This song was included on his 2nd solo effort. The album was called Kelly Blue & was released in 1959.

The album got great reviews across the board & producer and jazz critic Orrin Keepnews described the album as "a repertoire ideally suited to the blues concept on which the album is based".

The players on this song were Wynton Kelly piano, Paul Chambers on bass & Jimmy Cobb on drums.

Mariah Carey is a singer, songwriter, record producer, and actress from Huntington, New York. She turned 55 in March.

With eleven consecutive years of US number-one singles, Billboard ranked her as the most successful artist of the 90's.

She has also been dubbed the "Queen of Christmas" due to the enduring popularity of her holiday music, particularly Merry Christmas (1994), the best-selling holiday album, and its single "All I Want for Christmas Is You", which is the best selling holiday single by a female artist of all time.

She was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame, the National Recording Registry at the Library of Congress, and The Long Island Music and Entertainment Hall of Fame. She has won 5 Grammy Awards and a Grammy Global Impact Award, 10 American Music Awards, 19 World Music Awards and 20 Billboard Music Awards.

During her career she has released 15 studio albums. This song comes from her self – titled debut album released on June 12, 1990. The album hit #1 on the Top 200 albums charts & has been certified 9 X Platinum. With this album she became the only artist to have their first five singles reach #1 on the US Billboard Hot 100 chart.

The album included 4 singles & as mentioned above they all hit #1. Vision Of love, Love Takes Time, I Don’t Wanna Cry & the song linked to here was the 3rd of the 4.

She co – wrote the song with her writing partner Ben Margulies while she was attending high school. This was her first song to top the Dance Club Songs chart on March 16, 1991, and her second chart topper on the Radio Songs chart. The track peaked at number three on the Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart and number five on the Adult Contemporary chart. After three months of release it was certified gold. In 2015, Billboard writer Gary Trust compiled a list of her twenty-five best performing songs based on their weekly performance; "Someday" ranks as her 8th best performing track on the Hot 100.

At one point in the early 2000’s there was a five piece British Britpop revival band named Headway from Hucknall, Nottinghamshire. The band linked to here, is not that band.

The group linked to here appears to have been formed by two songwriters, Steven McClintock & David Fertitta.

Steven McClintock has written songs recorded by Tiffany, Juice Newton, Andy Williams, Pat Boone & Shiny Toy Guns among others. He won a BMI Songwriter Award for Tiffany's Billboard Hot 100 No. 6 hit "All This Time".

I find no separate info on David Fertitta, other than the two of them previously recorded under the name of Fertitta & McClintock.

Evidently this song & the album was released in 2022. However, on the album credits, David Fertitta is not listed. It’s all a mystery to me.

Seals and Crofts were a soft rock duo made up of Jim Seals and "Dash" Crofts. Jim Seals had a stroke in 2017. After a long illness, he died on June 6, 2022, at age 79. Dash Crofts is still with us & is now 86.

They had a long history of playing music together before they ever became famous. They first met when Crofts was a drummer for a local band. Later, Seals joined a rockabilly band called Dean Beard and the Crew Cats, in which he played sax; later on, Crofts joined Seals in the band. With Beard, they moved to Los Angeles to join the Champs after the group's "Tequila" reached No. 1 in 1958.

By 1963, Seals, Crofts, Glen Campbell, and Jerry Cole left the Champs to form a band named Glen Campbell and the GCs.

They finally signed a contract as a duo, but limped out of the gate with their 1st few albums. They finally broke through with the release of their 4th album in 1972. The album hit #17 on the top 200.

The title song was the 1st single released & it hit #6. It was their 1st charting single & was followed up by the #20 hit Hummingbird. Strangely enough they never had a single go any higher than #6, but they had 3 of those. "Diamond Girl" & "Get Closer" also got to that point, before falling back.

This song was ranked No. 13 in Rolling Stone′s "Best Summer Songs of All Time".

Almost everyone who has ever recorded a song has recorded a version of Summertime. If I’m around long enough, I may even post a version by you that you weren’t aware even existed. The Jazz Discography in 2005 listed 1,161 officially released versions.

Dinah Washington won a Grammy in 1959 for Best Rhythm & Blues Performance for her song What A Difference A Day Makes. That song has also been installed into The Grammy Hall Of Fame along with 2 of her other performances, “Unforgettable” & “Teach Me Tonight”.

This version of Summertime comes from Dinah Jams. It was the 2nd album by her & was recorded live In Los Angeles in 1954.

Interestingly enough, she sings nary a note on the song. It highlights the trumpet. There are two different trumpet players on the album, Clifford Brown & Maynard Ferguson. I suspect they both play on this song, I believe I hear 2 different instruments.

In 1955 Billboard wrote: "The instrumental solos are excellent and the entire package is well recorded in a smoothly paced collection of hot and cool jazz."

And so, on this song we get some pretty special trumpet solos to prove that comment.

During her lifetime Carmen McRae was nominated for 7 Grammy Awards but never broke through for the win. She did win the NAACP Image Award from the NAACP & she was also presented with the NEA Jazz Masters Award from the National Endowment For The Arts.

She released a ton of albums between 1953 & 1994 & there have been a few posthumous releases since her passing in 94.

The Great American Songbook is a 1972 live album, recorded at Donte’s in LA on November 6, 1971. Performers include Carmen McRae – vocals, piano, Jimmy Rowles – piano, Joe Pass – guitar, Chuck Domanico – double bass, & Chuck Flores – drums.

The album got stellar reviews including this comment: Diana Krall said in an interview that she wishes she had been present at this performance as "Those were the days when they were singing songs, and they weren't into worrying about whether you scat sang or not. You knew you were a jazz singer by the way you approached things".

When this album was released in 1966, Stevie Wonder was still just 16, he turned 74 in May.

The album was called Up-Tight, it was his 5th studio release.

Stevie was backed by the Funk Brothers, the legendary, but uncredited, early period Motown Records studio musicians, creators of the famous, recognizable '60s Motown sound. The album reached #33 on the Billboard Pop Albums chart and #2 on the R&B Albums chart.

It included the #3 hit single “Up Tight Everything’s All Right”, #20 “Nothings Too Good For My Baby”, & his cover of Bob Dylans' “Blowin In The Wind” hit #9.

Levi Stubbs of the Four Tops sings the other lead part & the rest of the Four Tops sing backing vocals.

This was the title song to Frank Sinatra’s 1966 album. It was his 43rd album & the 3rd album he released in 1966.

The song was first recorded by Marion Montgomery, but it came to the attention of Frank when he heard O.C. Smith's version in his car in 1965. He stopped the car, called his daughter Nancy and told her to find the publisher of the song because he wanted to record it.

The song was a #4 hit on the Hot 100 chart and #1 on the Easy Listening chart for three weeks in December 1966/January 1967. It also charted at #25 on the R&B chart. Frank's recording was later used in the 1993 film A Bronx Tale.

Tom Waits has tons of praise from other musicians like Elvis Costello, Bruce Springsteen, Nanci Griffith, Joe Strummer of The Clash, Michael Stipe of R.E.M., Frank Black of Pixies and James Hetfield of Metallica.

In 1980, he married frequent collaborator Kathleen Brennan. They live in Sonoma County, California, and have three children: After they married, he became increasingly reclusive. Safeguarding the privacy of his family life became very important to him.

In 2016, Tom & Kathleen, were honored with The Song Lyrics of Literary Excellence Award from PEN New England. Colum McCann presented the honor to Waits and Brennan, saying “They find out what others have not quite fathomed yet. They catch the ordinary so that it can be sung extraordinarily in the future.”

His catalog consists of 17 studio albums, 3 live albums, 7 compilation albums, 23 singles, 2 soundtracks. This song comes from The Heart of Saturday Night. It was his 2nd studio album & was released on October 15, 1974. The album marks the start of a decade-long collaboration between Tom and Bones Howe, who produced and engineered all Waits' recordings until the artist left the Asylum label.

The album got relatively positive reviews, but no chart appreciation as it landed outside the Top 200 at 201. It was ranked number 339 on Rolling Stone magazine's list of the 500 greatest albums of all time.

After recording sessions for Blue Note from 1947 to 1952, Thelonious was under contract to Prestige Records for the following two years. With Prestige, he cut several highly significant, but at the time under-recognized, albums, including collaborations with the saxophonist Sonny Rollins.

I guess it pays to have famous friends. In 1954, he paid his first visit to Paris. As well as performing at concerts, he recorded a solo piano session for French radio (later issued as an album by Disques Vogue). Backstage, Mary Lou Williams introduced him to Baroness Pannonica "Nica" de Koenigswarter, a member of the Rothschild family and a patroness of several New York City jazz musicians. She was a close friend for the rest of his life: she "served as a surrogate wife right alongside Monk's equally devoted actual wife, Nellie" and "paid Monk's bills, dragged him to an endless array of doctors, put him and his family up in her own home and, when necessary, helped Nellie institutionalize him. In 1958, Monk and the baroness were stopped by the police in Delaware. When a small amount of marijuana was discovered, she took the rap for her friend and even served a few nights in jail."

This song comes from an album released in 1954. It was called Thelonious Monk & Sonny Rollins. This was the 5th of 10 albums he would release on the Prestige label.

The players on the album are; Sonny Rollins (tenor sax), Thelonious Monk (piano), Tommy Potter (bass), & Art Taylor (drums).

Joni Mitchell released her 4th album in 1971. It was called Blue. Almost every rating service that gets involved in such things has the album ranked in the top 50 – 100 albums of all time. Rolling Stone ranks it as high as #3.

It charted at #15 on the Top 200 & #5 on The Folks Albums Chart. It even got to #46 on the Rock Albums chart. It has been certified Platinum.

In early spring 1970, she set off on a vacation around Europe. While on the island of Crete and staying in Matala, she wrote some of the songs that appear on Blue. This journey was the backdrop for the songs "Carey" and "California"—"Carey" was inspired by her relationship with an American named Cary Raditz, who was the "redneck on a Grecian Isle" in "California". 

Some of the songs on Blue were inspired by Graham Nash. Their relationship was already troubled when she left for Europe, and it was while she was on Formentera that she sent him the telegram that let him know that their relationship was over.

This song tells of her regrets as she leaves her lover on a flight and wishes to return. This was the B-side to "Carey",the 1st single from the album.

Four80East is a Canadian jazz ensemble from Toronto. The group is Rob DeBoer (keyboards, bass and guitar) and Tony Grace (percussion); accompanied by various session musicians. Although they began as a studio concept, they have evolved into a live act.

It appears as though they have released 12 studio albums. The performance linked to here happened in July of this year & they are touring at the moment.

Other than the 2 regular members mentioned above, it also looks like every one of their albums included different musicians to back them up, depending on the songs & the vibe they were going for. Sort of the path taken by Steely Dan.

This song comes from their 2023 album called Gonna Be Alright. The musicians in the video are Keys: Rob DeBoer, Percussion: Tony Grace, Sax: Jeff Kashiwa, Guitar: Dokun Oke, Bass: Vernon Parson III & Drums: Tim Steele.

"Chet" Baker Jr. was a jazz trumpeter and vocalist from Yale, Oklahoma. Early on May 13, 1988, he was found dead on the street below his room in Amsterdam, with serious wounds to his head, apparently having fallen from the second-story window. Heroin and cocaine were found in his room and in his body. No evidence of a struggle was found, and the death was ruled an accident, he was 58.

Jazz historian Dave Gelly described the promise of Baker's early career as "James Dean, Sinatra, and Bix, rolled into one". His well-publicized drug habit also drove his notoriety and fame. He was in and out of jail frequently before enjoying a career resurgence in the late 1970s and 1980s.

He was inducted into the Big Band and Jazz Hall of Fame in 1987, DownBeat magazine Jazz Hall of Fame 1989, Oklahoma Jazz Hall of Fame 1991,& he was presented with a Grammy Hall of Fame Award for Chet Baker Sings (1956), in 2001.

During his career he released multiple albums for multiple record labels & that doesn’t include the guest appearances he made on other peoples’ records. Evidently, he also covered this song many different times but this performance took place in Belgium in 1964.

Other than Chet on vocals & trumpet the other folks on the stage were; Bass Luigi Trussardi, Drums Franco Manzecchi, Flute Jacques Pelzer, & Piano René Urtreger.