The story of Roy Orbison is one of the strangest and most tragic in all of rock. His wide-ranging tenor voice and haunting ballads of lost love touched millions in the sixties and earned him the enduring respect of some of the greatest stars of rock, including the Beatles and Bruce Springsteen.

But fame is often accompanied by grief, and in Roy Orbison’s case, it was the horrifying accidental deaths in his family that haunted his soul. Yet, he persevered, and after remaining in the shadows of rock’s greatest stars for over twenty years, he suddenly found himself in demand again in the late eighties.

The revival of his career was short-lived. Just as he had seemingly buried his pain in the past, Roy Orbison, perhaps the greatest vocalist America has ever produced, was taken from us at the age of 52.

Recipient of the Recording Academy's Lifetime Achievement Award in 2003, Johnny Mathis - who turns 71 today - was still a teenager in college when a record company discovered him singing in a San Francisco nightclub in 1955. He was not yet 21 when he finally arrived in New York City for his first recording sessions in '56.

That was fifty years ago. In 2006, Johnny Mathis, an iconic figure in pop music history, is still going strong and his loyal fan base still thinks he's Wonderful! Wonderful!

They once were considered a main ingredient in The British Invasion. The blues-tinged sound of The Animals caught the eye of the American public in 1964 with the release of House Of The Rising Sun.
It was almost certain that riches and continued fame were inevitable, but clashing egos and a costly decision on publishing rights began a slow but steady downfall.

Their all too short time together produced some of rock's most classic songs, but somewhere along the line, one man lost his faith in the blues and sold his soul for fame. Ironically, he not only sold out his ideals, he also never found the fame he was sure he was going to get.

We all remember those four little words.

“Hello, I’m Johnny Cash.”

Those four words resonated throughout the world much as "In God We Trust" and other familiar phrases which have stood the test of time.
Yet the introduction was never any more necessary than telling someone the name of the Mona Lisa when viewing the painting. Johnny Cash was a household name for more than most people can remember, and his career spanned nearly fifty years.

Few artists in history ever enjoyed the successful career Cash did. Many people describe him as a mythical, larger than life figure. Others describe him as one of the greatest recording artists of all time.

In fact, he was both. Johnny Cash was a legend.

They were, believe it or not, a major rival of The Beatles in the early sixties.
Their infectious brand of British pop made them early stars, but it was their inability to change with the times that ultimately did them in.

Unable to adapt to the musical changes around them, Gerry & The Pacemakers were here and gone within two short years.

He wasn’t as handsome as Elvis Presley.

He wasn’t as controversial as Jerry Lee Lewis.

He wasn’t as big a star as Johnny Cash.

He didn’t pile up one hit after another. In fact, he only had one song hit the Top 40 charts.

But while some ill-informed revisionist writers of rock history would like to dismiss Carl Perkins as a rockabilly artist who became a one-hit wonder at the dawn of rock & roll's early years, a deeper look at his music and career reveals much more.

You may never have heard of his name, but the odds are pretty good you have heard his music.

Nicky Hopkins was one of the finest session musicians of the rock era. His work with the Rolling Stones and John Lennon is legendary, but he also played with hundreds of other artists.

Check it out. When you see just a partial list of songs he lent his extraordinary piano skills to, I'm willing to bet you have heard of virtually every song.

When a whole generation of TV watching audiences fell in love with The Wonder Years, the witty and insightful chronicles of a young American boy—Kevin Arnold, captured our imaginations aided by an extremely powerful title song.
”With a Little Help from My Friends,” Joe Cocker's rendition of the famous Beatles song is probably the first thing that one remembers from the TV series. In fact, many listeners, most notably those under 30 who came across the original Beatles version much later, probably find it difficult to think of Joe Cocker's version as the cover and not the original.

On January 18, 1973, Pink Floyd completed work on what would turn out to a record setting album. Conceived as a conceptual song-cycle, ”Dark Side Of The Moon” brought the days of flower power to a crashing halt.

This was no ordinary pop album. ”Dark Side Of The Moon” blasted the facts of life into your brain in a manner far different than your parents ever had. But these weren’t the facts of life as we usually identified them.

This was about life and death and the world that was not only all around us, but seemed to be closing in fast.