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Multi-Grammy winning jazz sax player Stan Getz (Gayetzky) was the first to record "The Look Of Love" as an instrumental in 1966 for the album "What The World Needs Now". "The Look Of Love" (Burt Bacharach - Hal David) was composed with lyrics for the

Martha (Reeves) and the Vandella's (Betty Kelly and Rosalind Ashford) introduced "Dancing In the Street" (Gaye - Stevenson - Hunter) recorded in two takes for the album "Dance Party" and reached number two in 1964. David Bowie and Mick Jagger teamed in

"Heat Wave" (Holland - Dozier - Holland) was released in 1963 by Motown's Martha and The Vandellas. The single peaked at number four on Billboard's pop and number one on the R&B charts. Linda Ronstadt covered "Heat Wave" in 1975 on the album

Billy Swan worked at Graceland, produced the Tony Joe White Hit "Polka Salad Annie", played with The Bill Black Combo, was in Kris Kristofferson's band, had a massive hit with "I Can Help" and before he reached the age of twenty-one wrote "Lover Please"

Canada's 14 year old Priscilla Wright was the original artist to record "The Man In the Raincoat" (Webster) in July 0f 1955. Her father played the trumpet and whistled. The single reached number sixteen on Billboard. Priscilla was the youngest Canadian to

"Tell It Like It Is" (George Davis - Lee Diamond) was originally recorded by the exceptional voice of Aaron Neville and peaked at number two on Billboard's Top One Hundred while topping the R&B chart in 1967. Composer George Davis was on sax. The

Co-composer David Pomeranz sings "The Old Songs" (David Pomeranz - Buddy Kaye). This is from the collection "Greatest Hits: Old Songs". David was an opening act for the likes of Rod Stewart, The Doors, Three Dog Night and Billy Joel. Barry Manilow

"Sultans of Swing" (Mark Knopfler) was originally recorded for a five song Dire Straits (Mark and brother David Knopfler, John Illsley and Pick Withers) demo shortly after the band formed in the summer of 1977. The tune didn't become a hit until it was

Producer/composer and author Lionel Stitcher aka Mitch Murray had his first hit with this song. The Beatles were first to record "How Do You Do It" (Mitch Murray) in 1962 after both Brian Poole and Adam Faith turned it down. Then The Beatles released

"I Want To Be Wanted" started as the Italian tune "Per Tutta la Vita" (A. Testa - P. Spotti), English translation "For All Lifetime". The original 1959 recording was sung by Wilma De Angelis. The song was entered in the 1959 The San Remo Song Festival.

Mel Tillis and the composer version of "Emotions" (Ramsey Kearney - Mel Tillis). Mel turned a childhood stutter into a positive. That stutter was a result of malaria. Mel is the father of Country star Pam Tillis and he was a member of Old Dogs along with

Known as a gospel singer and the man who sang the national anthem for the L.A. Lakers for six years, Beau Williams was first to record "C'est La Vie" (Nevil -Pain - Holding) for the 1984 album "Bodacious!". Robbie Nevil's debut self-titled album

The Dream Weavers' (lead singer Wade Buff, Gene Adkinson and a number of random female singers) "It's Almost Tomorrow" (Adkinson - Buff) was written in 1953 by two group members while in high school. The single peaked at number seven in 1955. Lifelong

It's true, Mouseketeer Paul Petersen was once signed with Motown Records in 1967 and the result for a star of "The Donna Reed Show" was "Chained" (Frank Wilson). Paul was a very active actor, singer and novelist. Marvin Gaye's 1968 issue of "Chained"

Charlie Chaplin composed "Smile" as instrumental music for his almost silent motion 1936 picture "Modern Times". This is the first film in which the 'Little Tramp' is heard. John Turner (Phillips) and Geoffrey Parsons added lyrics in 1954 and Nat King

Written in the mid-eighteenth century this "Happy Day" (Doddridge - Rimbault) version was recorded in 1913 by Trinity Choir (Olive Kline, Marguerite Dunlap, Harry MacDonough and Reinald Werrenrath). "Happy Day" is set to an 1704 melody composed by J. A.

Ral Donner first recorded "Half Heaven Half Heartache" (Aaron Schroeder - George Goehring - Wally Gold). Ral attended Chicago's Taft High with Jim Jacobs. When Jim wrote the musical "Grease" he based it on his alma mater Taft High. The name of the school

Steve Lawrence (Sidney Liebowitz) recorded "Come Back Silly Girl" (Barry Mann) with the Don Costa Orchestra as a single in 1959 and watched the song surprisingly go nowhere. Two years later The Lettermen (Jim Pike, Bob Engemann and Tony Butala) with

Jeri Southern (Genevieve Lillian Hering) sang "When I Fall In Love" (Young - Heyman) with the Victor Young Orchestra from the Robert Mitchum RKO motion picture "One Minute to Zero" in 1952. It was Doris Day (von Kappelhoff) who made "When I Fall In

Social activist and musician Harry Chapin topped the charts with "Cat's in the Cradle" (Harry and Sandra Chapin) in 1974. This is from the album "Verities & Balderdash". In 1992 Ugly Kid Joe (Whitfield Crane, Klaus Eichstadt, Dave Fortman, Cordell

The song "Leilani" was written by Harry Owens October 20, 1934. It was composed for his daughter Leilani born a day earlier. Harry was the music director at the Royal Hawaiian Hotel in Waikiki. It was first recorded as "Leilani (Wreath of Heaven)" by

Writer Earl "Bud" Lee performs "Friends In Low Places" (Blackwell - Lee) before a small but enthusiastic crowd. The tune was given to Garth Brooks in 1989 when he was a shoe salesman and he recorded it as a demo for the writers to shop around. Garth's

The Supremes (Diana Ross, Florence Ballard and Mary Wilson) hit the top of the charts with "You Keep Me Hanging On" (Holland - Dozier - Holland) in 1966. The track is on the album "The Supremes Sing Holland - Dozier - Holland". One year later Vanilla

U.K. group The Rokes (David Shapiro, Johnny Charlton, Mike Shepstone and Bob Posner) moved to Italy in 1963 and signed with an Italian label. Written in 1966 the group had a huge hit with "Piangi Con Me" (Cry With Me). Success of the tune led to an

Eurythmics member Annie Lennox composed and recorded "Step By Step" in 1992 as the B side of "Precious" from her debut solo album "Diva". Whitney Houston's "Step By Step" comes from the 1996 soundtrack "The Preacher's Wife" and contains somewhat

(Henry) Burr and (Albert) Campbell were first to record "Till We Meet Again" (Whiting) in October of 1918. Composer Richard Whiting wrote the song for a contest in Detroit. Upon completion of the tune he was dissatisfied and threw the music sheet away.

"Beth" was composed for Kiss drummer Peter Criss’s former band, Chelsea in 1981. Drummer Criss and guitarist Stan Penridge originally called the song “Beck” for guitarist Mike Brand’s wife, Becky, who interrupted rehearsals with phone calls to her husband

"Green Rocky Road" originally was a black children's folk song. The lyric "Hooka Tooka Soda Cracka" was probably added from the British children's counting rhyme "Icka Backa Soda Cracker". Judy Henske sang this at a 1963 Chicago "Hootenanny". This track

This traditional square dance tune was titled "Married Man Gonna Keep Your Secret". Woody Guthrie was first to actually sing the folk song as "Hey, Lolly, Lolly" with Sonny Terry on harmonica and Cisco Houston playing guitar and singing background. This

"He Stopped Loving Her Today" (Bobby Braddock - Curly Putman) has been called the greatest country song of all time. Bobby Braddock gives his intimate concert version of the song he co-composed in the late seventies. The 1980 George Jones album "I Am