117-530: Laura Nyro ( / ˈ n ɪər oʊ / NEER -oh ; born Laura Nigro ; October 18, 1947 – April 8, 1997) was an American songwriter and singer. She achieved critical acclaim with her own recordings, particularly the albums Eli and the Thirteenth Confession (1968) and New York Tendaberry (1969), and had commercial success with artists such as Barbra Streisand and the 5th Dimension recording her songs. Wider recognition for her artistry
234-417: A distorted electric guitar solo with warm overtones created by his small valve amplifier . However, the use of distortion was predated by electric blues guitarists such as Joe Hill Louis , Guitar Slim , Willie Johnson of Howlin' Wolf 's band, and Pat Hare ; the latter two also made use of distorted power chords in the early 1950s. Also in 1955, Bo Diddley introduced the " Bo Diddley beat " and
351-531: A double bass (string bass). After the mid-1950s, electric bass guitars ("Fender bass") and drum kits became popular in classic rock. Rock and roll had a profound influence on contemporary American lifestyles, fashion, attitudes, and language, and is often portrayed in movies, fan magazines, and on television. Some people believe that the music had a positive influence on the civil rights movement , because of its widespread appeal to both Black American and White American teenagers. The term "rock and roll"
468-437: A Child" and "Tom Cat Goodbye". The musical theater composer Stephen Schwartz credits Nyro as a major influence on his work. Alice Cooper has mentioned on his syndicated radio show that Laura Nyro is one of his favorite songwriters. Jenny Lewis of Rilo Kiley , when promoting her 2006 solo album Rabbit Fur Coat repeatedly cited Nyro's 1971 album Gonna Take a Miracle as a big influence on her music. Lewis performed
585-417: A back-cover recollection by Phoebe Snow . The remastered version was issued alongside remastered/expanded editions of New York Tendaberry and Gonna Take a Miracle . In August 2011, the album was re-released in audiophile vinyl by label "Music on Vinyl", using high-resolution digital audio at 96 kHz / 24 bit. In June 2016, Audio Fidelity reissued the album on hybrid Super Audio CD . It contains
702-411: A black-and-white silhouetted photo of Nyro kissing the head of what appears to be her younger self. According to Nyro, she was "kissing seventeen years of her life—her childhood—goodbye." On Nyro's insistence, the album's lyric sheet was printed with perfumed ink, and Kort wrote in 2002 that it still maintained a pleasant scent. The album's themes are of passion, love, romance , death, and drugs , and
819-458: A blues number), " Baby Let's Play House ", " Lawdy Miss Clawdy ", and " Hound Dog ". The racial lines, however, are rather more clouded by the fact that some of these R&B songs originally recorded by black artists had been written by white songwriters, such as the team of Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller . Songwriting credits were often unreliable; many publishers, record executives, and even managers (both white and black) would insert their name as
936-604: A bookkeeper. Laura had a younger brother, Jan Nigro, who has become a children's musician. Laura was of Russian Jewish and Polish Jewish descent, with Italian American ancestry from her paternal grandfather. Her father gave her the name "Laura", after hearing the title theme of the 1944 film Laura . Nigro and his family often insisted that their surname be pronounced as NIGH -ro instead of NEE -gro to avoid racial connotations. However, after Laura left high school, she chose her own surname, "Nyro", having it pronounced as NEAR -oh . "I've created my own little world,
1053-535: A brief relationship with singer/songwriter Jackson Browne in late 1970 to early 1971. (Browne was Nyro's opening act at the time.) Nyro married Vietnam War veteran David Bianchini in October 1971 after a whirlwind romance and spent the next three years living with him in a small town in Massachusetts. The marriage ended after three years, during which time she had grown accustomed to rural life, as opposed to
1170-409: A composer in order to collect royalty checks. Covers were customary in the music industry at the time; it was made particularly easy by the compulsory license provision of United States copyright law (still in effect). One of the first relevant successful covers was Wynonie Harris 's transformation of Roy Brown 's 1947 original jump blues hit " Good Rocking Tonight " into a more showy rocker and
1287-500: A defiant teen dates a rock and roll-loving boy but drops him for one who likes traditional adult music—to her parents' relief. In Britain, where postwar prosperity was more limited, rock and roll culture became attached to the pre-existing Teddy Boy movement, largely working class in origin, and eventually to the rockers . "On the white side of the deeply segregated music market", rock and roll became marketed for teenagers, as in Dion and
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#17327803028821404-407: A faithful cadre of followers. This prompted Clive Davis, in his memoir, to note that her recordings, as solid as they were, came to resemble demonstrations for other performers. In 1969, Verve reissued Nyro's debut album as The First Songs . The same year Geffen and Nyro sold Tuna Fish Music to CBS for $ 4.5 million. Under the terms of his partnership with Nyro, Geffen received half of the proceeds of
1521-458: A four-month tour with a full band, which resulted in the 1977 live album Season of Lights . After the 1978 album Nested , recorded when she was pregnant with her only child, she again took a break from recording, this time until 1984's Mother's Spiritual . She began touring with a band in 1988, her first concert appearances in 10 years. The tour was dedicated to the animal rights movement . The shows led to her 1989 release, Laura: Live at
1638-512: A major influence on British Invasion acts and particularly on the song writing of the Beatles and through them on the nature of later rock music. Many of the earliest white rock and roll hits were covers or partial re-writes of earlier black rhythm and blues or blues songs. Through the late 1940s and early 1950s, R&B music had been gaining a stronger beat and a wilder style, with artists such as Fats Domino and Johnny Otis speeding up
1755-683: A month at the " hungry i " coffeehouse in San Francisco. In February 1967, Verve Folkways released More Than A New Discovery . On March 4, 1967, Nyro appeared on Clay Cole's Diskoteck , Episode 7.23, along with Dion and the Belmonts and others, but the recording of the episode is lost. On March 21, 1967, she appeared on Where the Action Is (episode 3.140) with videos of "Wedding Bell Blues" (partially extant), "Blowin' Away" (lost) and "Goodbye Joe" (lost). On June 17, 1967, Nyro appeared at
1872-510: A month later, she sold " And When I Die " to Peter, Paul, and Mary for $ 5,000. On September 17, 1966, Nyro and Verve Folkways released "Wedding Bell Blues"/"Stoney End" as a single. "Wedding Bell Blues" became a minor hit, especially on the west coast. She completed More Than A New Discovery in New York on November 29, 1966; and, starting on January 16, 1967, made her first extended professional appearance at age 19, performing nightly for about
1989-580: A perkier vocal more appropriate for an audience unfamiliar with the song to which James's song was an answer , Hank Ballard 's "Work With Me, Annie". Presley's rock and roll version of "Hound Dog", taken mainly from a version recorded by the pop band Freddie Bell and the Bellboys , was very different from the blues shouter that Big Mama Thornton had recorded four years earlier. Other white artists who recorded cover versions of rhythm and blues songs included Gale Storm (Smiley Lewis' "I Hear You Knockin ' "),
2106-667: A preacher (October 1957), the departure of Presley for service in the United States Army (March 1958), the scandal surrounding Jerry Lee Lewis ' marriage to his thirteen-year-old cousin (May 1958), riots caused by Bill Haley 's ill-fated tour of Europe (October 1958), the deaths of Buddy Holly , The Big Bopper and Ritchie Valens in a plane crash (February 1959), the breaking of the Payola scandal implicating major figures, including Alan Freed , in bribery and corruption in promoting individual acts or songs (November 1959),
2223-518: A rare protest song to the Academy Award -winning documentary Broken Rainbow , about the unjust relocation of the Navajo people . Nyro performed increasingly in the 1980s and 1990s with female musicians, including her friend Nydia "Liberty" Mata, a drummer, and several others from the lesbian-feminist women's music subculture, such as members of the band Isis . She appeared at such venues as
2340-584: A recording and management contract for her, and Nyro recorded her debut album, More Than a New Discovery , for the Verve Folkways label (later re-named Verve Forecast ). Other songs from the album later became hits for The 5th Dimension, Blood, Sweat & Tears , and Barbra Streisand . On July 13, 1966, Nyro recorded " Stoney End " and " Wedding Bell Blues " as well as an early version of "Time and Love", as part of More Than A New Discovery at Bell Sounds Studios, 237 West 54th Street, Manhattan. About
2457-504: A recording contract for another of his clients, Jackson Browne (with whom Nyro was in a relationship at the time). Geffen invited Nyro to join the new label and announced that she would be Asylum's first singer; however, shortly before the signing was due to take place, Geffen learned that Nyro had re-signed with Columbia instead, without telling him. When interviewed about the matter for a 2012 PBS documentary on his life, Geffen, who'd considered Nyro his best friend, described her rejection as
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#17327803028822574-415: A result heard each other's music and even began to emulate each other's fashions. Radio stations that made white and black forms of music available to both groups, the development and spread of the gramophone record , and African-American musical styles such as jazz and swing which were taken up by white musicians, aided this process of "cultural collision". The immediate roots of rock and roll lay in
2691-610: A rock and roll standard. As interest in rock and roll was beginning to subside in America in the late 1950s and early 1960s, it was taken up by groups in British cities like Liverpool , Manchester , Birmingham , and London . About the same time, a British blues scene developed, initially led by purist blues followers such as Alexis Korner and Cyril Davies who were inspired by American musicians such as Robert Johnson , Muddy Waters and Howlin' Wolf . Many groups moved towards
2808-428: A son, Gil Bianchini (also known as musician Gil-T), whom she gave the surname of her ex-husband. In the early 1980s, Nyro began living with painter Maria Desiderio (1954–1999), a relationship that lasted 17 years, the rest of Nyro's life. Nyro was a feminist and openly discussed it on a number of occasions, once saying, "I may bring a certain feminist perspective to my songwriting, because that's how I see life." By
2925-445: A song about Laura Nyro ("Laura") on their first full-length album Spooky . Several of the band's songs (specifically those written by Emma Anderson ) have echoed Nyro's music in their titles – "When I Die", "Single Girl". More recently, in 2012, Anderson has referred to Laura Nyro as "wondrous" on her Twitter account. On her 2006 album Build a Bridge, the operatic/Broadway soprano Audra McDonald included covers of Nyro's songs "To
3042-476: A time of considerable technological change, soon after the development of the electric guitar, amplifier , 45 rpm record and modern condenser microphones . There were also changes in the record industry, with the rise of independent labels like Atlantic , Sun and Chess servicing niche audiences and a similar rise of radio stations that played their music. It was the realization that relatively affluent white teenagers were listening to this music that led to
3159-506: A unique electric guitar style, influenced by African and Afro-Cuban music and in turn influencing many later artists. Rock and roll was strongly influenced by R&B, according to many sources, including an article in The Wall Street Journal in 1985, titled, "Rock! It's Still Rhythm and Blues". In fact, the author stated that the "two terms were used interchangeably", until about 1957. The other sources quoted in
3276-432: A white market, or a new hybrid of black and white forms. In the 1930s, jazz , and particularly swing , both in urban-based dance bands and blues-influenced country swing ( Jimmie Rodgers , Moon Mullican and other similar singers), were among the first music to present African-American sounds for a predominantly white audience. One particularly noteworthy example of a jazz song with recognizably rock and roll elements
3393-514: A wider scale than any other single performer and by 1956, he had emerged as the singing sensation of the nation. Bill Flagg who is a Connecticut resident, began referring to his mix of hillbilly and rock 'n' roll music as rockabilly around 1953. In July 1954, Presley recorded the regional hit " That's All Right " at Sam Phillips' Sun Studio in Memphis. Three months earlier, on April 12, 1954, Bill Haley & His Comets recorded "Rock Around
3510-505: A world of music, since I was five years old", Nyro told Billboard magazine in 1970, adding that music provided, for her, a means of coping with a difficult childhood: "I was never a bright and happy child." As a child, she taught herself piano, read poetry, and listened to her mother's records by Leontyne Price , Nina Simone , Judy Garland , Billie Holiday , and classical composers such as Debussy and Ravel . She composed her first songs at age eight. With her family, she spent summers in
3627-519: Is Big Joe Turner with pianist Pete Johnson 's 1938 single " Roll 'Em Pete ", which is regarded as an important precursor of rock and roll. The 1940s saw the increased use of blaring horns (including saxophones), shouted lyrics and boogie-woogie beats in jazz-based music. During and immediately after World War II , with shortages of fuel and limitations on audiences and available personnel, large jazz bands were less economical and tended to be replaced by smaller combos, using guitars, bass and drums. In
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3744-466: Is a genre of popular music that evolved in the United States during the late 1940s and early 1950s. It originated from African American music such as jazz , rhythm and blues , boogie-woogie , electric blues , gospel , and jump blues , as well as country music . While rock and roll's formative elements can be heard in blues records from the 1920s and in country records of the 1930s,
3861-482: Is defined by Greg Kot in Encyclopædia Britannica as the music that originated in the mid-1950s and later developed "into the more encompassing international style known as rock music ". The term is sometimes also used as synonymous with "rock music" and is defined as such in some dictionaries. The phrase "rocking and rolling" originally described the movement of a ship on the ocean, but by
3978-692: Is general agreement that it arose in the Southern United States – a region that would produce most of the major early rock and roll acts – through the meeting of various influences that embodied a merging of the African musical tradition with European instrumentation. The migration of many former slaves and their descendants to major urban centers such as St. Louis , Memphis , New York City , Detroit , Chicago , Cleveland , and Buffalo meant that black and white residents were living in close proximity in larger numbers than ever before, and as
4095-466: Is often identified with the emergence of teen culture among the first baby boomer generation, who had greater relative affluence and leisure time and adopted rock and roll as part of a distinct subculture. This involved not just music, absorbed via radio, record buying, jukeboxes and TV programs like American Bandstand , but also extended to film, clothes, hair, cars and motorcycles, and distinctive language. The youth culture exemplified by rock and roll
4212-719: Is rock 'n' roll. I think that 'Rocket 88' is R&B, but I think 'Rocket 88' is the cause of rock and roll existing". In terms of its wide cultural impact across society in the US and elsewhere, Bill Haley 's " Rock Around the Clock ", recorded in April 1954 but not a commercial success until the following year, is generally recognized as an important milestone, but it was preceded by many recordings from earlier decades in which elements of rock and roll can be clearly discerned. Journalist Alexis Petridis argued that neither Haley's "Rock Around
4329-413: Is second only to its predecessor, 1967's More Than a New Discovery , in producing hit songs for other artists. Three Dog Night took "Eli's Comin'" to US No. 10, while The 5th Dimension went to US No. 3 with "Stoned Soul Picnic" and US No. 13 with " Sweet Blindness ". The legacy of the album is evident on the 1997 compilation Stoned Soul Picnic: The Best of Laura Nyro , which includes 6 songs from
4446-542: Is widely considered one of her best works. It was followed in 1969 by New York Tendaberry , another highly acclaimed work that cemented Nyro's artistic credibility. "Time and Love" and " Save the Country " emerged as two of her most well-regarded and popular songs in the hands of other artists. During the weekend after Thanksgiving in November 1969, she gave two concerts at Carnegie Hall . Her own recordings sold mostly to
4563-458: The Late Show with David Letterman pursued Nyro for TV appearances, but she turned them down, citing her discomfort with appearing on television. (She made only a handful of early TV appearances, and one fleeting moment on VH-1 performing the title song from Broken Rainbow on Earth Day in 1990.) According to producer Gary Katz , she also turned down an invitation to be the musical guest on
4680-485: The British Invasion would become the superseding forms of rock music during the mid-1960s, a few American artists were nonetheless able to achieve chart successes with rock and roll recordings during this time. The most notable of these was Johnny Rivers , who with hits such as "Memphis" (1964), popularized a " Go-go " style of club-oriented, danceable rock and roll that enjoyed significant success in spite of
4797-616: The Catskills , where her father played trumpet at resorts. She credited the Sunday school at the New York Society for Ethical Culture with providing the basis of her education; she also attended Manhattan's High School of Music & Art . Nyro was close to her aunt and uncle, artists Theresa Bernstein and William Meyerowitz , who helped support her education and early career. While attending Joseph Wade Junior High School in
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4914-597: The Monterey Pop Festival . Although some accounts described her performance as a fiasco that culminated in her being booed off the stage, recordings later made publicly available contradict this version of events. Newsweek reporter Michael Lydon reviewed her performance very negatively, writing that "the evening hit bottom" during Nyro's "melodramatic" set. Soon afterwards, David Geffen approached Mogull about taking over as Nyro's agent. Nyro successfully sued to void her management and recording contracts on
5031-457: The U.S. Supreme Court ruling that abolished the policy of " separate but equal " in 1954, but leaving a policy which would be extremely difficult to enforce in parts of the United States. The coming together of white youth audiences and black music in rock and roll inevitably provoked strong white racist reactions within the US, with many whites condemning its breaking down of barriers based on color. Many observers saw rock and roll as heralding
5148-657: The US pop charts – topped the British charts later that year and again in 1956 and helped identify rock and roll with teenage delinquency. The initial response of the British music industry was to attempt to produce copies of American records, recorded with session musicians and often fronted by teen idols. More grass roots British rock and rollers soon began to appear, including Wee Willie Harris and Tommy Steele . During this period American Rock and Roll remained dominant but in 1958 Britain produced its first "authentic" rock and roll song and star, when Cliff Richard reached number 2 in
5265-608: The beat music of rock and roll and rhythm and blues from skiffle, like the Quarrymen who became the Beatles , producing a form of rock and roll revivalism that carried them and many other groups to national success from about 1963 and to international success from 1964, known in America as the British Invasion. Groups that followed the Beatles included the beat-influenced Freddie and the Dreamers , Wayne Fontana and
5382-428: The rhythm and blues , then called " race music ", in combination with either boogie-woogie and shouting gospel or with country music of the 1940s and 1950s. Particularly significant influences were jazz, blues , gospel , country, and folk . Commentators differ in their views of which of these forms were most important and the degree to which the new music was a re-branding of African-American rhythm and blues for
5499-415: The tempos and increasing the backbeat to great popularity on the juke joint circuit. Before the efforts of Freed and others, black music was taboo on many white-owned radio outlets, but artists and producers quickly recognized the potential of rock and roll. Some of Presley's early recordings were covers of black rhythm and blues or blues songs, such as " That's All Right " (a countrified arrangement of
5616-861: The 1800s; the recording can be heard on the Vaughan Williams Memorial Library website. Various gospel, blues and swing recordings used the phrase before it became widely popular. " Bosom of Abraham ", an African-American spiritual that was documented no later than 1867 (just after the Civil War ), uses the phrase "rock my soul" frequently in a religious sense; this song was later recorded by musicians from various genres, including various gospel musicians and groups (including The Jordanaires ), Louis Armstrong (jazz/swing), Lonnie Donegan ( skiffle ), and Elvis Presley (rock and roll/pop/country). Blues singer Trixie Smith recorded "My [Man] Rocks Me with One Steady Roll" in 1922. It
5733-481: The 1950s, by leading white and black kids to listen to the same music, put the radio personality 'at the vanguard' and made him 'a really important figure ' ". After Freed was honored with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame , the organization's Web site offered this comment: "He became internationally known for promoting African-American rhythm and blues music on the radio in the United States and Europe under
5850-553: The 1968 album. Six songs from Eli and the Thirteenth Confession are included in the ballet Quintet performed by the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater . Rolling Stone ranked it No. 463 in the 2020 edition of their 500 Greatest Albums of All Time . Eli has grown in reputation and regularly garners acclaim. It is now recognized as a groundbreaking album in pop music . In April 1997, Stephen Holden of The New York Times deemed it one of
5967-691: The 1989 Michigan Womyn's Music Festival and the 1989 Newport Folk Festival , of which a CD containing portions of her performance was released. On July 4, 1991, she opened for Bob Dylan at the Tanglewood Music Center in Lenox, Massachusetts . Among her last performances were at Union Chapel , Islington , London, England in November 1994; The New York Bottom Line Christmas Eve Show in 1994; and at McCabe's in Los Angeles February 11 and 12, 1995. The Tonight Show and
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#17327803028826084-473: The 1993 season opener of Saturday Night Live . She never released an official video, although there was talk of filming some of The Bottom Line appearances in the 1990s. Nyro was bisexual , though this fact was known only to her closest friends. She had a perhaps yearlong relationship with Blood, Sweat & Tears bassist Jim Fielder starting in 1968, and with Crosby, Stills and Nash drummer Dallas Taylor for about six months after that. She also had
6201-505: The Belmonts ' " A Teenager in Love " (1959). From its early 1950s beginnings through the early 1960s, rock and roll spawned new dance crazes including the twist . Teenagers found the syncopated backbeat rhythm especially suited to reviving Big Band-era jitterbug dancing. Sock hops , school and church gym dances, and home basement dance parties became the rage, and American teens watched Dick Clark 's American Bandstand to keep up on
6318-599: The Bottom Line , which included six new compositions. Her final album of predominantly original material, Walk the Dog and Light the Light (1993), her last album for Columbia, was co-produced by Gary Katz , best known for his work with Steely Dan . The release sparked reappraisal of her place in popular music, and new commercial offers began appearing. She turned down lucrative film-composing offers, although she contributed
6435-482: The Bronx, Nyro performed an early version of the song Eli's Coming in music class to prove to the teacher that rock and roll "wasn't junk". While in high school, she sang with a group of friends in subway stations and on street corners. She said, "I would go out singing, as a teenager, to a party or out on the street, because there were harmony groups there, and that was one of the joys of my youth." She commented: "I
6552-547: The Clock" nor Presley's version of "That's Alright Mama" heralded a new genre: "They were simply the first white artists' interpretations of a sound already well-established by black musicians almost a decade before. It was a raucous, driving, unnamed variant of rhythm and blues that came complete with lyrics that talked about rocking". Other artists with early rock and roll hits included Chuck Berry , Bo Diddley , Little Richard , Jerry Lee Lewis , and Gene Vincent . Chuck Berry's 1955 classic " Maybellene " in particular features
6669-466: The Clock". Although only a minor hit when first released, when used in the opening sequence of the movie Blackboard Jungle a year later, it set the rock and roll boom in motion. The song became one of the biggest hits in history, and frenzied teens flocked to see Haley and the Comets perform it, causing riots in some cities. "Rock Around the Clock" was a breakthrough success for the group; traditionally,
6786-780: The Diamonds (The Gladiolas' "Little Darlin ' " and Frankie Lymon & the Teenagers' "Why Do Fools Fall in Love?"), the Crew Cuts (the Chords' "Sh-Boom" and Nappy Brown's "Don't Be Angry"), the Fountain Sisters (The Jewels' "Hearts of Stone") and the Maguire Sisters (The Moonglows' "Sincerely"). Some commentators have suggested a decline of rock and roll starting in 1958. The retirement of Little Richard to become
6903-503: The Joint " (1949) (later covered by Bill Haley & His Comets in 1952), " Rocket 88 " by Jackie Brenston and his Delta Cats ( Ike Turner and his band The Kings of Rhythm and sung by Brenston), was recorded by Sam Phillips in March 1951. This is often cited as the first rock n' roll record. In an interview however, Ike Turner offered this comment: "I don't think that 'Rocket 88'
7020-479: The Louis Prima rocker "Oh Babe" in 1950, as well as Amos Milburn 's cover of what may have been the first white rock and roll record, Hardrock Gunter 's "Birmingham Bounce" in 1949. The most notable trend, however, was white pop covers of black R&B numbers. The more familiar sound of these covers may have been more palatable to white audiences, there may have been an element of prejudice, but labels aimed at
7137-685: The Man (Flim Flam Man)". Nyro's best-selling single was her recording of Carole King 's and Gerry Goffin 's " Up on the Roof ". Nyro was posthumously inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 2010, and into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2012. Nyro was born Laura Nigro in The Bronx , New York City, the daughter of Louis Nigro, a piano tuner and jazz trumpeter, and Gilda (née Mirsky) Nigro,
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#17327803028827254-716: The Mindbenders , Herman's Hermits and the Dave Clark Five . Early British rhythm and blues groups with more blues influences include the Animals , the Rolling Stones , and the Yardbirds . Rock and roll influenced lifestyles, fashion, attitudes, and language. In addition, rock and roll may have contributed to the civil rights movement because both African-American and European-American teens enjoyed
7371-523: The Mission ", from Tumbleweed Connection , in particular. "I idolized her," he concluded. "The soul, the passion, just the out and out audacity of the way her rhythmic and melody changes came was like nothing I've heard before." Bruce Arnold, leader of the pioneering soft rock group Orpheus , was a fan of Nyro's music. They both worked with legendary studio drummer Bernard Purdie . While recording with Purdie, Arnold mentioned his love of Nyro's music, and
7488-591: The National Ballet of Canada have also included her music in their performances; notably, "Been On A Train" from Christmas and the Beads of Sweat , in which a woman describes watching her lover die from a drug overdose, comprises the second movement of Ailey's 1971 solo for Judith Jamison , Cry . Alvin Ailey choreographed Quintet in 1968 with 5 female members of his troupe dancing to several of Laura's songs from
7605-465: The Record Business , Davis recalled Nyro's audition for him: She had invited him to her New York apartment, turned off every light except that of a television set next to her piano, and played him the material that would become Eli and the Thirteenth Confession . Around this time, she considered becoming lead singer for Blood, Sweat & Tears after the departure of founder Al Kooper , but
7722-599: The Thirteenth Confession . Eli and the Thirteenth Confession Eli and the Thirteenth Confession is the second album by New York City-born singer, songwriter, and pianist Laura Nyro , released in 1968. Nyro premiered some of the songs that were to appear on the album at the 1967 Monterey Pop Festival . The song "Luckie" was derived from an earlier composition Nyro had played at her audition for Verve Records in 1966. Before she signed to Columbia Records , Verve had already planned to release
7839-535: The Thirteenth Confession was reissued in expanded and remastered format during the summer of 2002. The reissue was produced by Al Quaglieri, with Laura Grover as project director. The reissue featured three previously unreleased demos recorded on November 29, 1967. The 20-year-old Nyro performed the spare, solo demos of "Lu", "Stoned Soul Picnic" and "Emmie" on piano and multi-tracked her own voice to add harmonies. The accompanying booklet includes photographs and recording details, as well as liner notes by Rick Petreycik and
7956-609: The Who and started writing songs like Laura." Cyndi Lauper said that her rendition of the song " Walk On By ", on her Grammy Award -nominated 2003 cover album At Last , was inspired by Nyro. Elton John and Elvis Costello discussed Nyro's influence on both of them during the premiere episode of Costello's interview show Spectacle . When asked by the host if he could name three great performers/songwriters who have largely been ignored, John cited Nyro as one of his choices. He also addressed Nyro's influence on his 1970 song " Burn Down
8073-455: The album, under the title Soul Picnic . The album saw its actual release in 1968 on the Columbia label and became one of the year's underground successes. The album was written entirely by Nyro, arranged by Charlie Calello and produced by both. The front cover was taken by Bob Cato . Writer Michele Kort said that Nyro resembled a "dark Madonna with luxuriant red lips." The back cover is
8190-439: The arrest of Chuck Berry (December 1959), and the death of Eddie Cochran in a car crash (April 1960) gave a sense that the initial phase of rock and roll had come to an end. During the late 1950s and early 1960s, the rawer sounds of Presley, Gene Vincent , Jerry Lee Lewis and Buddy Holly were commercially superseded by a more polished, commercial style of rock and roll influenced pop music. Marketing frequently emphasized
8307-570: The article said that rock and roll combined R&B with pop and country music. Fats Domino was one of the biggest stars of rock and roll in the early 1950s and he was not convinced that this was a new genre. In 1957, he said: "What they call rock 'n' roll now is rhythm and blues. I've been playing it for 15 years in New Orleans". According to Rolling Stone , "this is a valid statement ... all Fifties rockers, black and white, country born and city-bred, were fundamentally influenced by R&B,
8424-507: The biggest betrayal of his life up to that point, and said he "cried for days" afterwards. By the end of 1971, Nyro was married to carpenter David Bianchini. She was reportedly uncomfortable with attempts to market her as a celebrity and she announced her retirement from the music business at the age of 24. In 1973, her Verve debut album was reissued as The First Songs by Columbia Records. By 1976, her marriage had ended, and she released an album of new material, Smile . She then embarked on
8541-536: The black popular music of the late Forties and early Fifties". Further, Little Richard built his ground-breaking sound of the same era with an uptempo blend of boogie-woogie, New Orleans rhythm and blues, and the soul and fervor of gospel music vocalization. Less frequently cited as an influencer, LaVern Baker was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1991. The Hall remarked that her "fiery fusion of blues, jazz and R&B showcased her alluring vocals and set
8658-563: The charts with " Move It ". At the same time, TV shows such as Six-Five Special and Oh Boy! promoted the careers of British rock and rollers like Marty Wilde and Adam Faith . Cliff Richard and his backing band, the Shadows , were the most successful home grown rock and roll based acts of the era. Other leading acts included Billy Fury , Joe Brown , and Johnny Kidd & the Pirates , whose 1960 hit song " Shakin' All Over " became
8775-632: The concept of rock and roll had been defined, Billboard magazine columnist Maurie Orodenker started to use the term to describe upbeat recordings such as "Rock Me" by Sister Rosetta Tharpe ; her style on that recording was described as "rock-and-roll spiritual singing". By 1943, the "Rock and Roll Inn" in South Merchantville, New Jersey , was established as a music venue. In 1951, Cleveland , Ohio, disc jockey Alan Freed began playing this music style, and referring to it as "rock and roll" on his mainstream radio program, which popularized
8892-415: The crossover of African-American "race music" to a growing white youth audience, the popularization of rock and roll involved both black performers reaching a white audience and white musicians performing African-American music. Rock and roll appeared at a time when racial tensions in the United States were entering a new phase, with the beginnings of the civil rights movement for desegregation , leading to
9009-588: The development of what was to be defined as rock and roll as a distinct genre. Because the development of rock and roll was an evolutionary process, no single record can be identified as unambiguously "the first" rock and roll record. Contenders for the title of " first rock and roll record " include Sister Rosetta Tharpe 's " Strange Things Happening Every Day " (1944), " That's All Right " by Arthur Crudup (1946), " Move It On Over " by Hank Williams (1947), " The Fat Man " by Fats Domino (1949), Goree Carter 's " Rock Awhile " (1949), and Jimmy Preston 's " Rock
9126-414: The drummer responded with a story about Nyro: At Nyro's home one night in the late 1970s, Purdie mentioned that he was the uncredited drummer for Orpheus . Nyro got excited and brought him into a room where she kept her record collection. She pulled out well-worn copies of every Orpheus LP, as well as copies sealed for posterity. Diane Paulus and Bruce Buschel co-created Eli's Comin' , a musical revue of
9243-416: The early 20th century was used both to describe the spiritual fervor of black church rituals and as a sexual analogy. A retired Welsh seaman named William Fender can be heard singing the phrase "rock and roll" when describing a sexual encounter in his performance of the traditional song " The Baffled Knight " to the folklorist James Madison Carpenter in the early 1930s, which he would have learned at sea in
9360-427: The electric guitar as its centerpiece, adapting his rock band instrumentation from the basic blues band instrumentation of a lead guitar, second chord instrument, bass and drums. In 2017, Robert Christgau declared that "Chuck Berry did in fact invent rock 'n' roll", explaining that this artist "came the closest of any single figure to being the one who put all the essential pieces together". Rock and roll arrived at
9477-511: The electric guitar, creating what is instantly recognizable as rock guitar. This proposal by Richards neglects the black guitarists who did the same thing before Berry, such as Goree Carter , Gatemouth Brown , and the originator of the style, T-Bone Walker . Country boogie and Chicago electric blues supplied many of the elements that would be seen as characteristic of rock and roll. Inspired by electric blues , Chuck Berry introduced an aggressive guitar sound to rock and roll, and established
9594-455: The electronic treatment of sound by such innovators as Joe Meek , and the " Wall of Sound " productions of Phil Spector , continued desegregation of the charts, the rise of surf music , garage rock and the Twist dance craze. Surf rock in particular, noted for the use of reverb-drenched guitars, became one of the most popular forms of American rock of the early 1960s. While the sounds of
9711-462: The first definition. In the earliest rock and roll styles, either the piano or saxophone was typically the lead instrument. These instruments were generally replaced or supplemented by the electric guitar in the mid-to-late 1950s. The beat is essentially a dance rhythm with an accentuated backbeat , almost always provided by a snare drum . Classic rock and roll is usually played with one or more electric guitars (one lead , one rhythm ) and
9828-662: The first track on that album "I Met Him on a Sunday" on the Rabbit Fur Coat tour. In the 2004 drama film A Home at the End of the World can be heard Nyro's recordings of "Désiree" and "It's Gonna Take a Miracle", both songs from the album Gonna Take a Miracle . Paul Shaffer , bandleader for the CBS Orchestra and sidekick on the Late Show with David Letterman , stated that his desert island album would be Eli and
9945-500: The first two albums. On October 2, 2007, three-time Tony nominee Judy Kuhn released her new album Serious Playground: The Songs of Laura Nyro . The album, which debuted as a concert to a sold-out house at Lincoln Center's American Songbook Series in January 2007, includes several of Nyro's biggest hits ("Stoned Soul Picnic", "Stoney End") as well as some of her lesser known gems. In 1992, English shoegaze/Britpop band Lush released
10062-627: The follow-up, New York Tendaberry ). The album was her first chart entry, reaching No. 181 on the Billboard 200 , when it was known as "Pop Albums." In the February 2016 issue of Uncut magazine, it was rated in the 100 Greatest Albums of All Time. Many musicians, including Elton John and Todd Rundgren were directly influenced by the album, and bandleader Paul Shaffer told CBC Television 's George Stroumboulopoulos that he considers this album to be his one "desert island record". The album
10179-489: The foundation for various musicians. Holden saw Nyro kickstart a lasting genre of "quirky, reflective songwriting" led by women. In 2015, Vivien Goldman for The Vinyl Factory wrote that it "instantly transfixed a generation", but had "still [been] extensively mined by other artists" years later. She credited it, alongside her next two albums , with shaping the "personal, opera -tinged" style of musicians Kate Bush , Cyndi Lauper , Tori Amos and Alicia Keys . Eli and
10296-446: The genre did not acquire its name until 1954. According to the journalist Greg Kot , "rock and roll" refers to a style of popular music originating in the United States in the 1950s. By the mid-1960s, rock and roll had developed into "the more encompassing international style known as rock music , though the latter also continued to be known in many circles as rock and roll." For the purpose of differentiation, this article deals with
10413-463: The greatest Black musicians like BB King, Arthur Crudup and Fats Domino. His style of music combined with black influences created controversy during a turbulent time in history. Many other popular rock and roll singers of the time, such as Fats Domino and Little Richard , came out of the black rhythm and blues tradition, making the music attractive to white audiences, and are not usually classed as "rockabilly". Presley popularized rock and roll on
10530-433: The grounds that she had entered into them while still a minor . Geffen became her manager, and the two established a publishing company, Tuna Fish Music, under which the proceeds from her future compositions would be divided equally between them. Geffen also arranged Nyro's new recording contract with Clive Davis at Columbia Records , and purchased the publishing rights to her early compositions. In his memoir Clive: Inside
10647-577: The late 1980s, Nyro had become an animal rights activist and vegetarian , and began to offer literature on the subject at her concerts. In late 1996, Nyro, like her mother, was diagnosed with ovarian cancer . After the diagnosis, Columbia Records , with Nyro's involvement, prepared a two-CD retrospective of material from her years at the label. She lived to see the release of Stoned Soul Picnic: The Best of Laura Nyro in 1997. She died of ovarian cancer in Danbury, Connecticut , on April 8, 1997, at 49,
10764-467: The late-'60s "most influential pop recordings". He cited Nyro's "fiercely emotional singing" and the songs' "abrupt changes of tempo and style" as reasons why it was "unlike anything that had been heard" in the genre. Later that month, Entertainment Weekly ' s Alanna Nash wrote that the album confirmed Nyro as "pop's high priestess" and called her one of the genre's "most influential American songwriters." Eli has been widely credited with laying
10881-399: The levees and plantations, took in folk songs, and features blues and rhythm". In discussing Alan Freed's contribution to the genre, two significant sources emphasized the importance of African-American rhythm and blues. Greg Harris, then the executive director of the Rock n Roll Hall of Fame, offered this comment to CNN : "Freed's role in breaking down racial barriers in U.S. pop culture in
10998-428: The life in the city, where she had recorded her first five records. After Nyro split from Bianchini in 1975, she suffered the trauma of the death of her mother Gilda to ovarian cancer at the age of 49. She consoled herself largely by recording a new album, enlisting Charlie Calello , with whom she had collaborated on Eli and the Thirteenth Confession . In 1978, a short-lived relationship with Harindra Singh produced
11115-581: The music. Many early rock and roll songs dealt with issues of cars, school, dating, and clothing. The lyrics of rock and roll songs described events and conflicts to which most listeners could relate through personal experience. Topics such as sex that had generally been considered taboo began to appear in rock and roll lyrics. This new music tried to break boundaries and express emotions that people were actually feeling but had not discussed openly. An awakening began to take place in American youth culture. In
11232-666: The name of rock and roll". Not often acknowledged in the history of rock and roll, Todd Storz , the owner of radio station KOWH in Omaha , Nebraska, was the first to adopt the Top 40 format (in 1953), playing only the most popular records in rotation. His station, and the numerous others which adopted the concept, helped to promote the genre: by the mid 50s, the playlist included artists such as " Presley , Lewis , Haley , Berry and Domino ". The origins of rock and roll have been fiercely debated by commentators and historians of music. There
11349-474: The ongoing British Invasion. Another example was Bobby Fuller and his group The Bobby Fuller Four , who were especially inspired by Buddy Holly and stuck with a rock and roll style, scoring their most notable hit with "I Fought the Law" (1965). In the 1950s, Britain was well placed to receive American rock and roll music and culture. It shared a common language , had been exposed to American culture through
11466-470: The original stereo version in high-resolution digital audio as well as a previously unreleased 4-channel quadraphonic mix, which was created in 1971. Prior to this release only one track, "Eli's Comin'", had been released in quad on a rare Columbia Records sampler LP. All tracks are written by Laura Nyro Rock and roll Rock and roll (often written as rock & roll , rock-n-roll , rock 'n' roll , rock n' roll , Rock n' Roll or proto-rock )
11583-418: The phrase. Several sources suggest that Freed found the term, used as a synonym for sexual intercourse, on the record " Sixty Minute Man " by Billy Ward and his Dominoes . The lyrics include the line, "I rock 'em, roll 'em all night long". Freed did not acknowledge the suggestion about that source in interviews, and explained the term as follows: "Rock 'n roll is really swing with a modern name. It began on
11700-512: The physical looks of the artist rather than the music, contributing to the successful careers of Ricky Nelson , Tommy Sands , Bobby Vee , Jimmy Clanton , and the Philadelphia trio of Bobby Rydell , Frankie Avalon , and Fabian , who all became "teen idols". Some music historians have also pointed to important and innovative developments that built on rock and roll in this period, including multitrack recording , developed by Les Paul ,
11817-485: The production team of Kenny Gamble and Leon Huff . With the exception of her attribution of "Désiree" (originally "Deserie" by the Charts ), it was Nyro's sole album of wholly non-original material, featuring such songs as " Jimmy Mack ", " Nowhere to Run " and " Spanish Harlem ". During 1971, David Geffen worked to establish his own recording label, Asylum Records , in part because of the trouble he had trying to secure
11934-554: The sale, making them both millionaires. Nyro's fourth album, Christmas and the Beads of Sweat , was released at the end of 1970. It contained "Upstairs By a Chinese Lamp" and "When I Was a Freeport and You Were the Main Drag" and featured Duane Allman and other Muscle Shoals musicians. The following year's Gonna Take a Miracle was a collection of Nyro's favorite "teenage heartbeat songs", recorded with vocal group Labelle ( Patti LaBelle , Nona Hendryx , and Sarah Dash ) and
12051-963: The same age at which her mother died. Her ashes were scattered beneath a maple tree on the grounds of her house in Danbury. Nyro's posthumous releases include Angel In The Dark (2001), which includes her final studio recordings made in 1994 and 1995, and The Loom's Desire (2002), a set of live recordings with solo piano and harmony singers from The Bottom Line Christmas shows of 1993 and 1994. Nyro's influence on popular musicians has also been acknowledged by such artists as Joni Mitchell , Carole King , Tori Amos , Patti Smith , Kate Bush , Suzanne Vega , Diamanda Galas , Bette Midler , Rickie Lee Jones , Elton John , Jackson Browne , Alice Cooper , Elvis Costello , Cyndi Lauper , Todd Rundgren , Steely Dan , Sarah Cracknell , Melissa Manchester , Lisa Germano , and Rosanne Cash . Todd Rundgren stated that once he heard her, he "stopped writing songs like
12168-528: The same period, particularly on the West Coast and in the Midwest , the development of jump blues , with its guitar riffs, prominent beats and shouted lyrics, prefigured many later developments. In the documentary film Hail! Hail! Rock 'n' Roll , Keith Richards proposes that Chuck Berry developed his brand of rock and roll by transposing the familiar two-note lead line of jump blues piano directly to
12285-573: The song has been seen as the major breakthrough for the rock and roll genre, as its immense popularity introduced the music to a global audience. In 1956, the arrival of rockabilly was underlined by the success of songs like " Folsom Prison Blues " by Johnny Cash , " Blue Suede Shoes " by Perkins, and the No. 1 hit " Heartbreak Hotel " by Presley. For a few years it became the most commercially successful form of rock and roll. Later rockabilly acts, particularly performing songwriters like Buddy Holly , would be
12402-502: The songs are delivered in Nyro's distinctive brash, belting vocals. Musically, it is a multi-layered and opulent work, including multi-tracked vocals and strings . The album's loose genre is pop, but it also incorporates elements of soul , gospel , jazz, and rock. It is generally considered to be Nyro's most accessible and most famous work, although it is arguably not the most commercially successful or critically favored (both honors go to
12519-747: The songs of Nyro, which, among others, starred Anika Noni Rose . Louis Greenstein and Kate Ferber wrote One Child Born: The Music of Laura Nyro , a one-woman show featuring Ferber and directed by Adrienne Campbell-Holt. One Child Born was developed at CAP21 in New York City and has sold out Joe's Pub and the Laurie Beechman Theatre in New York, World Cafe Live in Philadelphia , and other venues. The Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater and
12636-494: The stage for the rock and roll surge of the Fifties". "Rockabilly" usually (but not exclusively) refers to the type of rock and roll music which was played and recorded in the mid-1950s primarily by white singers such as Elvis Presley , Carl Perkins , Johnny Cash , and Jerry Lee Lewis , who drew mainly on the country roots of the music. Presley was greatly influenced by and incorporated his style of music with that of some of
12753-626: The stationing of troops in the country, and shared many social developments, including the emergence of distinct youth sub-cultures, which in Britain included the Teddy Boys and the rockers . Trad jazz became popular in the UK, and many of its musicians were influenced by related American styles, including boogie woogie and the blues . The skiffle craze, led by Lonnie Donegan , used amateurish versions of American folk songs and encouraged many of
12870-516: The subsequent generation of rock and roll, folk, R&B and beat musicians to start performing. At the same time British audiences were beginning to encounter American rock and roll, initially through films including Blackboard Jungle (1955) and Rock Around the Clock (1956). Both movies featured the Bill Haley & His Comets hit " Rock Around the Clock ", which first entered the British charts in early 1955 – four months before it reached
12987-451: The way for desegregation, in creating a new form of music that encouraged racial cooperation and shared experience. Many authors have argued that early rock and roll was instrumental in the way both white and black teenagers identified themselves. Several rock historians have claimed that rock and roll was one of the first music genres to define an age group . It gave teenagers a sense of belonging, even when they were alone. Rock and roll
13104-804: The white market also had much better distribution networks and were generally much more profitable. Famously, Pat Boone recorded sanitized versions of songs recorded by the likes of Fats Domino, Little Richard, the Flamingos and Ivory Joe Hunter. Later, as those songs became popular, the original artists' recordings received radio play as well. The cover versions were not necessarily straightforward imitations. For example, Bill Haley's incompletely bowdlerized cover of " Shake, Rattle and Roll " transformed Big Joe Turner's humorous and racy tale of adult love into an energetic teen dance number, while Georgia Gibbs replaced Etta James ' tough, sarcastic vocal in "Roll With Me, Henry" (covered as "Dance With Me, Henry") with
13221-401: Was a recurring source of concern for older generations, who worried about juvenile delinquency and social rebellion, particularly because, to a large extent, rock and roll culture was shared by different racial and social groups. In America, that concern was conveyed even in youth cultural artifacts such as comic books . In "There's No Romance in Rock and Roll" from True Life Romance (1956),
13338-509: Was always interested in the social consciousness of certain songs. My mother and grandfather were progressive thinkers, so I felt at home in the peace movement and the women's movement, and that has influenced my music." Louis Nigro's work brought her into contact with record company executive Artie Mogull and his partner Paul Barry, who auditioned Laura in 1966 and became her first managers. However, Nigro later said he did "not even once" mention Laura to any of his clients." Mogull had negotiated
13455-455: Was dissuaded by Geffen. Blood, Sweat & Tears went on to have a hit with a cover of Nyro's "And When I Die". The new contract allowed Nyro more artistic freedom and control. In 1968, Columbia released Eli and the Thirteenth Confession , her second album, which received high critical praise for the depth and sophistication of its performance and arrangements, which merged pop structure with inspired imagery, rich vocals, and avant-garde jazz; it
13572-568: Was posthumous, while her contemporaries such as Elton John idolized her. She was praised for her emotive three- octave mezzo-soprano voice. Between 1968 and 1970, a number of artists had hits with her songs: the 5th Dimension with " Blowing Away ", " Wedding Bell Blues ", " Stoned Soul Picnic ", " Sweet Blindness ", and " Save the Country "; Blood, Sweat & Tears and Peter, Paul and Mary with " And When I Die "; Three Dog Night and Maynard Ferguson with " Eli's Comin' "; and Barbra Streisand with " Stoney End ", "Time and Love", and "Hands off
13689-473: Was used in 1940s recordings and reviews of what became known as " rhythm and blues " music aimed at a black audience. Huey "Piano" Smith credits Cha Cha Hogan , a jump-blues shouter and comic in New Orleans, with popularizing the term in his 1950 song "My Walking Baby". In 1934, the song "Rock and Roll" by the Boswell Sisters appeared in the film Transatlantic Merry-Go-Round . In 1942, before
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