Words of Wisdom From Paul B.

#91 - Bob Seger

2012-09-05T18:37:00.003-07:00

#91 of the Top 100 Pop Stars of the Rock Era is.........Bob Seger

His biggest US hit is.......... Shakedown: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pk-W_i7Z59I

Originally a hard-driving rocker in the vein of fellow Michigan garage rockers the Rationals and Mitch Ryder, Bob Seger developed into one of the most popular heartland rockers over the course of the '70s. Combining the driving charge of Ryder's Detroit Wheels with Stonesy garage rock and devotion to hard-edged soul and R&B, he crafted a distinctively American sound. While he never attained the critical respect of his contemporary Bruce Springsteen, Seger did develop a dedicated following through constant touring with his Silver Bullet Band. Following several years of missed chances and lost opportunities, Seger finally achieved a national audience in 1976 with the back-to-back release of Live Bullet and Night Moves. After the platinum success of those albums, Seger retained his popularity for the next two decades, releasing seven Top Ten, platinum-selling albums in a row.

Seger began playing music in 1961 as the leader of the Detroit-based trio the Decibels; his future manager, Eddie "Punch" Andrews was also a member of the band. Moving to Ann Arbor, he played with the Town Criers before he became the keyboardist and vocalist for Doug Brown & the Omens. Billing themselves as the Beach Bums, the band released "The Ballad of the Yellow Beret," a parody of the Sgt. Barry Sadler song "The Ballad of the Green Beret." The single was withdrawn shortly after its release after Sadler threatened a lawsuit. In 1966, Seger released his first solo single, "East Side Story," which became a regional hit. Several other local hit singles followed on Cameo Records, including "Persecution Smith" and "Heavy Music," before his label folded. In 1968, he formed the Bob Seger System and signed with Capitol Records, releasing his debut album, Ramblin' Gamblin' Man, in the spring of that year. The title track became a national hit, climbing to number 17, but the group's follow-up, Noah, stiffed and Seger decided to quit the music business at the end of 1969 to attend college.

By the end of the summer, Seger had returned to rock & roll with a new backing band, releasing Mongrel at the end of the year. For 1971's Brand New Morning, he disbanded his group and recorded a singer/songwriter effort. Following its release, he began performing with the duo Dave Teegarden and Skip "Van Winkle" Knape, and the duo provided support on 1972's Smokin' O.P.'s, which was the first release on Palladium Records, a label he formed with Andrews. The album failed to sell, as did Back in '72 (1973) and Seven (1974), and he moved back to Capitol Records for 1975's Beautiful Loser. For the recording of Beautiful Loser, Seger formed the Silver Bullet Band, which consisted of guitarist Drew Abbott, bassist Chris Campbell, keyboardist Robyn Robbins, saxophonist Alto Reed, and drummer Charlie Allen Martin. Seger supported Beautiful Loser with an extensive tour with the Silver Bullet Band, and while it didn't make the album a hit, it provided a widespread grassroots following across the country. The touring paid off in 1976, when Live Bullet, a double album recorded in Detroit, became a hit, spending over three years on the U.S. charts and going gold; the album would eventually go quadruple platinum.

The groundswell behind Live Bullet sent Seger's next studio album, Night Moves (1976), into the Top Ten early in 1977. Night Moves became a blockbuster, generating the hit singles "Night Moves," "Mainstreet," and "Rock & Roll Never Forgets." Stranger in Town, released in the summer 1978, was just as successful, featuring the hits "Still the Same," "Hollywood Nights," "We've Got Tonite," and "Old Time Rock & Roll." Stranger in Town confirming his status as one America's most popular rockers. Seger's next album, 1980's Against the Wind, became his first number one album and all of its big hits -- "Fire Lake," "Against the Wind," "You'll Accomp'ny Me" -- were ballads. The live album Nine Tonight continued his multi-platinum success in 1981, selling three million copies and peaking at number three.

Seger returned with The Distance in 1982. The Distance was the first album since Seven to be recorded with the addition of session musicians, which caused guitarist Abbott to quit the band in frustration. Over the course of the next decade, the membership of the Silver Bullet Band shifted constantly. While The Distance featured "Shame on the Moon," his biggest hit single to date, its sales plateaued at a million copies, suggesting that his popularity was beginning to level off. Seger also began to drastically reduce his recording and touring schedules -- he only released one other album, 1986's Like a Rock, during the '80s. Like a Rock and its supporting tour were both successes, paving the way for "Shakedown," a song taken from the soundtrack to Beverly Hills Cop II, to become Seger's lone number one hit in 1987. Four years after its release, he returned with The Fire Inside. Although the album went platinum and reached the Top Ten, it only appealed to Seger's devoted following, as did 1995's It's a Mystery, which became his first album since Live Bullet to fail to go platinum, leveling off at gold status. In 2006, after an 11-year hiatus, Seger released Face the Promise.

#92 Richard Marx

2012-09-04T19:34:00.000-07:00

#92 of the Top 100 Pop Stars of the Rock Era is......Richard Marx.

His biggest hit in the US is..........Right Here Waiting:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S_E2EHVxNAE

Before he became a pop/rock heavyweight during the late '80s (and an adult contemporary balladeer throughout the following two decades),Richard Marx sang on commercials and performed as a backing vocalist for Lionel Richie, Whitney Houston, and Julio Iglesias. The Chicago native also delved into professional songwriting, penning tunes for Kenny Rogers and the St. Elmo's Fire soundtrack before landing a solo contract with EMI Records. Featuring production from David Cole, who later launched C+C Music Factory, Marx's self-titled debut was released in 1987 and catapulted the artist to the top of the Billboard charts. "Don't Mean Nothing" and "Should've Known Better" were slick, radio-ready singles that emphasized guitar riffs and power chords, but Marx's real strength lay with ballads like "Endless Summer Nights" and "Hold on to the Nights." By the time Repeat Offender arrived in 1989, Marx had already established his presence on the charts; nevertheless, the album helped make him a genuine star, with "Right Here Waiting" marking his third consecutive number one hit in America. Another song, "Angelia," was Marx's record-breaking seventh consecutive single to crack the Top Five.

With the release of Rush Street in 1991, Richard Marx's commercial fortunes started to slip as mainstream tastes shifted away from the slick, well-constructed songs that were his forte. Despite the Top Ten hit single "Now and Forever," 1994's Paid Vacation fell from the charts quickly, and Marx entered a period of seclusion, eventually returning in the spring of 1997 with an adult contemporary album titled Flesh & Bone. The following year saw him performing a duet with Donna Lewis on a contribution to the Anastasia soundtrack, and Days in Avalon was quietly issued in fall 2000. While the album fared modestly well in the adult contemporary market, Marx found more success as a producer and songwriter for other artists. He penned the Top Ten hit "This I Promise You" for *NSYNC and co-wrote "Dance with My Father," which won a Grammy, for Luther Vandross; other projects included writing material for 98°, SHeDAISY, and Josh Groban. He then returned to his solo career several years later, issuing My Own Best Enemy in 2004 and Duo, a collaboration with Vertical Horizon's Matt Scannell, in 2008.

#93 - Styx

2012-09-03T07:56:00.001-07:00

#93 of the top 100 pop stars of the Rock Era is .... Styx

The biggest US hit for Styx was......Babe: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GRP5n-pvSwc

Although they began as an artsy prog rock band, Styx would eventually transform into the virtual arena rock prototype by the late '70s and early '80s, due to a fondness for bombastic rockers and soaring power ballads. The seeds for the band were planted in another Chicago band during the late '60s, the Tradewinds, which featured brothers Chuck and John Panozzo (who played bass and drums, respectively), as well as acquaintance Dennis DeYoung (vocals, keyboards). By the dawn of the '70s, the group had changed its name to TW4, and welcomed aboard a pair of guitarists/vocalists, James "JY" Young and John Curulewski -- securing a recording contract in 1972 with Wooden Nickel Records (a subsidiary of RCA). Soon after, the group opted to change its name once more, this time to Styx, named after a river from Greek mythology that ran through "the land of the dead" in the underworld.

Early on, Styx's music reflected such then-current prog rockers as Emerson, Lake & Palmer and the Moody Blues, as evidenced by such releases as 1972's self-titled debut, 1973's Styx II, 1974's The Serpent Is Rising, and 1975's Man of Miracles. While the albums (as well as nonstop touring) helped the group build a substantial following locally, Styx failed to break through to the mainstream, until the track "Lady," originally from their second album, started to get substantial airplay in late 1974 on Chicago radio station WLS-FM. The song was soon issued as a single nationwide, and quickly shot to number six on the singles chart, as Styx II was certified gold. By this time, however, the group had grown disenchanted with its record label, and opted to sign on with A&M for their fifth release overall, 1975's Equinox (the band's former label would issue countless compilations over the years, culled from tracks off their early releases). On the eve of the tour in support of the album, Curulewski abruptly left the band, and was replaced by Tommy Shaw (sadly, Curulewski would pass away from an aneurysm in 1988). Shaw proved to be the missing piece of the puzzle for Styx, as most of their subsequent releases throughout the late '70s earned at least platinum certification (1976's Crystal Ball, 1977's The Grand Illusion, 1978's Pieces of Eight, and 1979's Cornerstone), and spawned such hit singles and classic rock radio standards as "Come Sail Away," "Renegade," "Blue Collar Man," "Fooling Yourself," and the power ballad, and #1 pop hit "Babe."

Despite the enormous success of "Babe," it caused tension within the group -- specifically between Shaw and DeYoung (the latter of whom was the song's author), as the guitarist wanted Styx to continue in a more hard rock-based direction, while DeYoung sought to pursue more melodic and theatrically based works. This led to DeYoung's brief ouster from the group (although it was kept completely hush-hush at the time), before a reconciliation occurred. The bandmembers decided that their first release of the '80s would be a concept album, 1981's Paradise Theater, which was loosely based on the rise and fall of a once beautiful theater (which was supposedly used as a metaphor for the state of the U.S. at the time -- the Iranian hostage situation, the Cold War, Reagan, etc.). Paradise Theater became Styx's biggest hit of their career (selling over three million copies in a three-year period), as they became one of the U.S. top rock acts due to such big hit singles as "Too Much Time on My Hands" and "The Best of Times." But the behind-the-scenes bickering only intensified in the wake of the album's success, as DeYoung was now convinced that a more theatrical approach was the future direction for Styx. Shaw and the rest of the group begrudgingly went along, and while the resulting follow-up was another hit, 1983's sci-fi-based Kilroy Was Here (which told the story of a future where rock & roll was outlawed, almost a carbon copy of the story line of Rush's 2112), the album would eventually lead to the group's breakup -- as the ensuing prop-heavy tour seemed to focus more on scripted dialogue and lengthy films than good old rock & roll.

A forgettable live album, Caught in the Act, was issued in 1984, before Styx went on hiatus, and the majority of the bandmembers pursued solo projects throughout the remainder of the decade. DeYoung issued 1984's Desert Moon (which spawned a moderate hit single with its reflective title track), 1986's Back to the World, and 1988's Boomchild,Young released 1986's City Slicker, while Shaw put forth several solo sets -- 1984's Girls with Guns, 1985's What If?, 1986's Live in Japan, and 1987's Ambition. Shaw then formed Damn Yankees along with former Night Ranger bassist/singer Jack Blades, guitarist Ted Nugent, and drummer Michael Cartellone, a group that enjoyed commercial success right off the bat with its self-titled debut in 1990 (due to the hit power ballad "High Enough"), before issuing an unsuccessful sophomore effort two years later, Don't Tread. During Shaw's tenure with Damn Yankees, Styx had re-formed with newcomer Glen Burtnik taking the place of Shaw -- issuing a new studio album in 1990, Edge of the Century, which spawned yet another hit power ballad, "Show Me the Way." But the Styx reunion was a fleeting one, as the group's members went their separate ways shortly thereafter -- with DeYoung going on to play Pontius Pilate in a revival of Jesus Christ Superstar (and issuing an album of Broadway show tunes, 1994's 10 on Broadway), while Young issued a pair of solo discs (1994's Out on a Day Pass and 1995's Raised by Wolves), and Shaw teamed up with Jack Blades for the short-lived outfit Shaw Blades (issuing a lone recording in 1995, Hallucination).

A re-recording of their early hit "Lady" (titled "Lady '95") for a Greatest Hits compilation finally united Shaw with his former Styx bandmates, which led to a full-on reunion tour in 1996. But drummer John Panozzo fell seriously ill at the time (due to a long struggle with alcoholism), which prevented him from joining the proceedings -- and he passed away in July of the same year. Although grief-stricken, Styx persevered with new drummer Todd Sucherman taking the place of Panozzo, as the Styx reunion tour became a surprise sold-out success, resulting in the release of a live album/video, 1997's Return to Paradise, while a whole new generation of rock fans was introduced to the grandiose sounds of Styx via a humorous car ad which used the track "Mr. Roboto," as well as songs used in such TV shows as South Park and Freaks & Geeks. The group even stuck around long enough to issue a new studio album, 1999's Brave New World, before friction within the band set in once again.

With the other Styx members wanting to soldier on with further albums and tours, DeYoung was forced to take a break when he developed an uncommon viral ailment, which made the singer extremely sensitive to light. DeYoung was able to eventually overcome his disorder, but not before Shaw and Young opted to enlist new singer Lawrence Gowan and issued a pair of live releases in the early 21st century -- 2000's Arch Allies: Live at Riverport (split 50-50 between Styx and REO Speedwagon) and 2001's Styx World: Live 2001. DeYoung began touring as a solo artist at the same time, and eventually attempted to sue Shaw and Young over the use of the name Styx (the lawsuit was eventually settled in late 2001). Around the same time, Chuck Panozzo confirmed rumors that he had contracted AIDS (but was battling the virus successfully), while the turbulent career of Styx was told in an entertaining episode of VH1's Behind the Music.

In the spring of 2003, a new studio album featuring Gowan arrived in stores. For Cyclorama, Styx consisted of Shaw, Young, Burtnik,Sucherman, and Gowan. The album also featured guest appearances from John Waite, Brian Wilson, and actor Billy Bob Thornton. By the end of the year, Burtnik was out of the band and replaced by former Bad English and Babys member Ricky Phillips, although Panozzo did play with the group on selected live dates. The two-CD Come Sail Away: The Styx Anthology from 2004 did an excellent job representing the band's career, while 2005's double-disc The Complete Wooden Nickel Recordings collected the band's first four albums. That same year, Styx released the cover version-filled Big Bang Theory, featuring some of their favorite picks from "the Great Rock Songbook."

#94 - Nelly

2012-09-02T07:33:00.003-07:00

#94 of the top 100 pop stars of the Rock Era is......Nelly

Nelly's biggest US hit is........Hot In Herre: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uFSjWsuqw6I

Cornell Iral Haynes, Jr. (born November 2, 1974), better known by his stage name Nelly, is an American Grammy Award-winning hip-hop artist, entrepreneur and occasional actor. He has performed with the rap group St. Lunatics since 1993 and signed to Universal Records in 1999. Under Universal, Nelly began his solo career in 2000 with his debut album Country Grammar, the title track of which was a top ten hit. The album debuted at number three on the Billboard 200 and went on to peak at number one. Country Grammar is Nelly's best-selling album to date, selling over 8.4 million copies in the United States. His following album, Nellyville, produced the number-one hits "Hot in Herre" and "Dilemma" (featuring Kelly Rowland). Other singles included "Work It" (featuring Justin Timberlake), "Air Force Ones" (featuring Murphy Lee and St. Lunatics), "Pimp Juice" and "#1".

With the same-day dual release Sweat and Suit (2004) and the compilation Sweatsuit (2006), Nelly continued to generate many chart-topping hits. Sweat debuted at number two on the USBillboard 200 chart, selling 342,000 copies in its first week. On the same week of release, Suitdebuted at number one, selling around 396,000 copies in its first week on the same chart. Nelly's fifth studio album, Brass Knuckles, was released on September 16, 2008, after several delays. It produced the singles "Party People" (featuring Fergie), "Stepped on My J'z" (featuringJermaine Dupri and Ciara) and "Body on Me" (featuring Akon and Ashanti). In 2010, Nelly released the album 5.0. The lead single, "Just a Dream", has appeared in the top ten of several singles charts and were certified platinum in the United States. The second single is "Move That Body" (featuring T-Pain and Akon). "Gone" is the sequel to Nelly's 2002 worldwide number one single "Dilemma", also with Rowland, and serves as third single from Nelly's album.

He won Grammy Awards in 2003 and 2004 and had a supporting role in the 2005 remake filmThe Longest Yard with Adam Sandler and Chris Rock. He has two clothing lines, Vokal and Apple Bottoms. He has been referred to by Peter Shapiro as "one of the biggest stars of the new millennium", and the RIAA ranks Nelly as one of the best-selling male artists in American music history, with 21 million albums sold in the United States. On December 11, 2009,Billboard ranked Nelly the number three Top Artist of the Decade.

#95 - Queen

2012-09-01T06:09:00.001-07:00

#95 of the top 100 pop stars of the Rock Era is ... Queen

Queen's biggest US hit was...... Another One Bites The Dust: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rY0WxgSXdEE

and one of the biggest hits of all time in the UK.......Bohemian Rhapsody: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fJ9rUzIMcZQ

Queen are a British rock band formed in London in 1971, originally consisting of Freddie Mercury (lead vocals, piano), Brian May (guitar, vocals), John Deacon (bass guitar, guitars), and Roger Taylor (drums, vocals). Queen's earliest works were influenced by progressive rock, but the band gradually ventured into more conventional and radio-friendly works, incorporating more diverse and innovative styles in their music.

Before joining Queen, Brian May and Roger Taylor had been playing together in a band named Smile with bassist Tim Staffell. Freddie Mercury (then known as Farrokh/Freddie Bulsara) was a fan of Smile, and encouraged them to experiment with more elaborate stage and recording techniques after Staffell's departure in 1970. Mercury himself joined the band shortly thereafter, changed the name of the band to "Queen", and adopted his familiar stage name. John Deacon was recruited prior to recording their eponymous debut album (1973). Queen enjoyed success in the UK with their debut and its follow-up, Queen II (1974), but it was the release of Sheer Heart Attack (1974) and A Night at the Opera (1975) that gained the band international success. The latter featured "Bohemian Rhapsody", which stayed at number one in the UK Singles Chart for nine weeks; it charted at number one in several other territories, and gave the band their first top ten hit on the US Billboard Hot 100. Their 1977 album, News of the World, contained two of rock's most recognisable anthems, "We Will Rock You" and "We Are the Champions". By the early 1980s, Queen were one of the biggest stadium rock bands in the world, and their performance at 1985's Live Aid is regarded as one of the greatest in rock history. In 1991, Mercury died of bronchopneumonia, a complication of AIDS, and Deacon retired in 1997. Since then, May and Taylor have infrequently performed together, including a collaboration with Paul Rodgers under the name Queen + Paul Rodgers which ended in May 2009.

The band have released a total of 18 number one albums, 18 number one singles, and 10 number one DVDs. Estimates of their album sales generally range from 150 million to 300 million albums, making them one of the world's best-selling music artists. They received a Lifetime Achievement Award from the British Phonographic Industry in 1990, and were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2001.

#96 - Dionne Warwick

2012-08-31T05:53:00.000-07:00

#96 of the Top 100 Pop Stars of the Rock Era. Dionne Warwick's biggest US hit was....That's What Friends Are For: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xGbnua2kSa8

Marie Dionne Warrick was born into a gospel-music family. Her father was a gospel record promoter for Chess Records and her mother managed the Drinkard Singers, a gospel group consisting of her relatives. She first raised her voice in song at age six at the New Hope Baptist Church in Newark, NJ, and soon after was a member of the choir. As a teenager, she formed a singing group called the Gospelaires with her sister Dee Dee and her aunt Cissy Houston (later the mother of Whitney Houston). After graduating from high school in 1959, she earned a music scholarship to the Hartt College of Music in Hartford, CT, but she also spent time with her group recording background vocals on sessions in New York. the Gospelaires are said to be present on such well-known recordings as Ben E. King's "Spanish Harlem" and "Stand By Me." They were at a Drifters session working on a song called "Mexican Divorce" composed by Burt Bacharach when Bacharach, attending the session, suggested Warwick might do some demos for him. She did, singing songs he had written with lyricist Hal David. Bacharach and David pitched one of the songs to Florence Greenberg, head of the small independent Scepter Records label, and Greenberg liked the demo singer enough to sign her as a recording artist. Bacharach and David wrote and produced her first single, "Don't Make Me Over," in 1962. When the record was released, the performer credit contained a typo; it read "Dionne Warwick" instead of "Dionne Warrick," and she kept the new name. (Her sister Dee Dee eventually became Dee Dee Warwick as well.)

"Don't Make Me Over" peaked in the Top 20 of the pop charts in early 1963, also reaching the Top Five of the R&B charts. Warwick's subsequent singles were not as successful, but in early 1964, she reached the pop and R&B Top Ten and the Top Five of the easy listening charts with "Anyone Who Had a Heart," which was also her first record to reach the charts in the U.K. (There, such singers as Cilla Black and Dusty Springfield sometimes would cover her records before her own versions had a chance to become hits.) "Walk on By" followed it into the Top Ten of the pop, easy listening, and U.K. charts in the spring of 1964, and it hit number one on the R&B charts. By then, the Beatles had arrived on the American scene, followed by the British Invasion, and for a while, pop artists like Warwick took a beating on the charts. Nevertheless, the singer continued to place singles and LPs in the rankings over the next couple of years and in the spring of 1966, she returned to the Top Ten of the pop charts and the Top Five of the R&B charts with "Message to Michael." Other, more modest hits followed, including the most successful U.S. recording of the title song from the movie Alfie, which reached the R&B Top Five and the pop Top 20 in the spring of 1967. That summer, Warwick topped the R&B LP charts with her gold-selling Here Where There Is Love album and by the fall, Scepter had amassed enough chart singles to issue Dionne Warwick's Golden Hits, Pt. 1, her first album to reach the pop Top Ten.

Curiously, Warwick's career reached a new level with a single not written by Bacharach and David, although they produced it. It was "(Theme From) Valley of the Dolls," written by André and Dory Previn and issued at the end of 1967. The record reached the Top Five of the pop, R&B, and easy listening charts. Its B-side, Bacharach and David's "I Say a Little Prayer," reached the Top Five of the pop and R&B charts, helping the single become a gold record and the Valley of the Dolls LP also made the Top Five of the pop and R&B charts and went gold. With that, Warwick was on a roll. Her next single, "Do You Know the Way to San José," reached the pop Top Ten and the R&B and easy listening Top Five in the spring of 1968 and won the Grammy Award for Best Contemporary Pop Vocal Performance, Female. In the winter of 1969, her version of "This Guy's in Love With You," re-titled "This Girl's in Love With You," made the pop and R&B Top Ten and the easy listening Top Five and in early 1970, "I'll Never Fall in Love Again" from Bacharach and David's score for the Broadway musical Promises, Promises made the pop Top Ten and topped the easy listening charts, bringing her another Grammy Award for Best Contemporary Vocal Performance, Female.

In 1971, Warwick added an "e" to the end of her name on the advice of a numerologist, retaining the new spelling until 1975. She also left Scepter Records and signed a deal with the major label Warner Bros. that included Bacharach and David as her writer and producer. The team produced the 1972 album Dionne, which was a modest seller, but then Bacharach and David split up in the wake of the critical and commercial failure of their work on a musical remake of the film Lost Horizon in 1973. Due to her contractual commitment, Warwick was forced to sue her old partners. A settlement was reached, but they would not work together again for many years and Warwick's career suffered.

Warwick bounced back with "Then Came You," a song she recorded with the Spinners, which topped the pop and R&B charts and reached the Top Five of the easy listening charts in October 1974, going gold in the process. It proved to be a one-off success, but Warwick (now without the "e") signed to Arista Records in 1979 and returned to the Top Five of the pop adult contemporary (formerly easy listening) charts with "I'll Never Love This Way Again," produced by labelmate Barry Manilow and featured on her first platinum-selling album, another LP simply titled Dionne. "Deja Vu," also from the album, was a Top 20 pop and number one adult contemporary hit. "I'll Never Love This Way Again" won Warwick her third Grammy for Best Pop Vocal Performance, Female; "Deja Vu" won her her fourth for Best Rhythm & Blues Vocal Performance, Female.

Warwick topped the adult contemporary charts in 1980 with "No Night So Long," but her next across-the-board hit did not come until she hooked up with the Bee Gees for her 1982 album Heartbreaker. Barry Gibb produced the gold-selling LP and the three Gibb brothers wrote the title song, which made the pop Top Ten and topped the adult contemporary charts. In 1985, Warwick was reconciled with Bacharach and she organized a charity recording of his and Carole Bayer Sager's song "That's What Friends Are For" to benefit AIDS, featuring Elton John, Gladys Knight, and Stevie Wonder, in addition to herself. The record topped the pop, R&B, and adult contemporary charts in the winter of 1985-1986, the album Friends on which it was included went gold, and the song earned Warwick her fifth Grammy for Best Pop Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocal. In 1987, Warwick topped the adult contemporary charts and reached the Top Five of the R&B charts with "Love Power," a duet with Jeffrey Osborne that was another Bacharach/Sager composition.

Warwick enjoyed less commercial success after the late '80s. She parted ways with Arista Records after her 1995 album Aquarela Do Brazil. In 1998, she issued Dionne Sings Dionne, an album consisting largely of re-recordings of her hits, on River North

#97 - Black Eyed Peas

2012-08-30T07:46:00.000-07:00

#97 of the top 100 pop stars of the Rock Era is Black Eyed Peas. Their top US hit is I Gotta Feeling:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uSD4vsh1zDA

The Black Eyed Peas are an American hip hop group (originally an alternative hip hop group, they have since added R&B, pop, dance, electro and techno influences). Though founded in Los Angeles, California in 1995, it was not until the release of their third album Elephunk in 2003 that the group found widespread acclaim and achieved high record sales. Since that time, the group has sold an estimated 56 million records worldwide. According to Nielsen SoundScan, The Black Eyed Peas are the second-best-selling artist or group for downloaded tracks, with over 42 million sales as of the end of 2011.

Their first major hit was the 2003 single "Where Is the Love?" from Elephunk, which topped 13 international charts. Another European hit single from the album was "Shut Up". Their fourth album Monkey Business, was an even bigger worldwide success, certified 4× Platinum in the U.S., and spawning two singles, "My Humps" and "Don't Phunk with My Heart". In 2009, the group became one of only 11 artists to have simultaneously held the No. 1 and No. 2 spots on the Billboard Hot 100, with their singles "Boom Boom Pow" and "I Gotta Feeling"; which topped the chart for an unprecedented 26 consecutive weeks. The album later produced a third Hot 100 number-one placement with "Imma Be", making the group one of few to ever place three number one singles on the chart from the same album before being followed with "Rock That Body" and "Meet Me Halfway" which managed to peak in the Top 10 of Hot 100. "I Gotta Feeling" became the first single to sell more than 1 million downloads in the United Kingdom. The Black Eyed Peas were ranked 12th on the Billboard's Decade-End Chart Artist of the Decade, and 7th in the Hot 100 Artists of the Decade. On the 52nd Grammy Awards ceremony, which held in January, 2010 they won 3 awards out of 6 nominations.

In November 2010, they released the album The Beginning. In February 2011, the group performed at the Super Bowl XLV halftime show. The album's first two singles "The Time (Dirty Bit)" and "Just Can't Get Enough" became international hits and topped the charts in many countries.

During an interview with NRJ, will.i.am talking about his solo album also confirmed that The Black Eyed Peas will start recording sessions for their seventh studio album in 2013.

#98 - Roy Orbison

2012-08-28T13:24:00.003-07:00

#98 of the Top 100 Pop Stars of the Rock Era is Roy Orbison.

Roy Orbison's biggest US hit, Oh, Pretty Woman: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_PLq0_7k1jk

Roy Kelton Orbison (April 23, 1936 – December 6, 1988) was an American singer-songwriter, best known for his distinctive, powerful voice, complex compositions, and dark emotional ballads. Orbison grew up in Texas and began singing in a rockabilly/country and western band in high school until he was signed by Sun Records in Memphis. His greatest success came with Monument Records between 1960 and 1964, when 22 of his songs placed on the Billboard Top Forty, including "Only the Lonely", "Crying", and "Oh, Pretty Woman". His career stagnated through the 1970s, but several covers of his songs and the use of "In Dreams" in David Lynch's Blue Velvet revived his career in the 1980s. In 1988, he joined the supergroup Traveling Wilburys with George Harrison, Bob Dylan, Tom Petty, and Jeff Lynne and also released a new solo album. He died of a heart attack in December that year, at the zenith of his resurgence. His life was marred by tragedy, including the death of his first wife and his two eldest sons in separate accidents.

Orbison was a natural baritone, but music scholars have suggested that he had a three- or four-octave range. The combination of Orbison's powerful, impassioned voice and complex musical arrangements led many critics to refer to his music as operatic, giving him the sobriquet "the Caruso of Rock". Elvis Presley and Bono have stated his voice was, respectively, the greatest and most distinctive they had ever heard. While most men in rock and roll in the 1950s and 1960s portrayed a defiant masculinity, many of Orbison's songs instead conveyed a quiet, desperate vulnerability. He was known for performing while standing still and solitary, wearing black clothes and dark sunglasses which lent an air of mystery to his persona.

Orbison was initiated into the second class of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1987 by longtime admirer Bruce Springsteen. The same year he was inducted into the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame, and the Songwriters Hall of Fame two years later. Rolling Stone placed Orbison at number 37 on their list of The Greatest Artists of All Time, and number 13 on their list of The 100 Greatest Singers of All Time. In 2002, Billboard magazine listed Orbison at number 74 in the Top 600 recording artists.

#99 Duran Duran

2012-08-27T17:44:00.000-07:00

#99 Duran Duran

Their biggest US hit - The Reflex http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oDnNF5cHCdo

Duran Duran are an English New Wave band, formed in Birmingham in 1978. They were one of the most successful bands of the 1980s and a leading band in the MTV-driven "Second British Invasion" of the United States. Since the 1980s, they have placed 14 singles in the Top 10 of the UK Singles Chart and 21 on the Billboard Hot 100 and have, according to the Sunday Mercury, sold more than 100 million records. While they were generally considered part of the New Romantic scene along with bands such as Spandau Ballet when they first emerged, they later shed this image. The band worked with fashion designers to build a sharp and elegant image that earned them the nickname "the prettiest boys in rock." The band's controversial videos, which included partial nudity and suggestions of sexuality, became popular in the early 1980s on the then-new music video channel MTV. Duran Duran were among the first bands to have their videos shot by professional directors with 35 mm film movie cameras, which gave their videos a much more polished look. In 1984, the band were early innovators with video technology in their live stadium shows.

Their US hits included 2 #1 singles, "The Reflex" and "A View To A Kill", 2 #2 singles, "Wild Boys" and "Notorious", and the #3 hit "Hungry Like The Wolf".

The group was formed by Nick Rhodes, John Taylor and Stephen Duffy, with the later addition of Roger Taylor and, after numerous personnel changes, Andy Taylor and Simon LeBon. (None of the Taylors are related.) The group has never disbanded, but the line-up has changed to include guitarist Warren Cuccurullo from 1989 to 2001 and drummer Sterling Campbell from 1989 to 1991. The reunion of the original five members in the early 2000s created a stir among the band's fans and music media. Andy Taylor left the band in mid-2006, and London guitarist Dom Brown has since been working with the band as a session player and touring member.

Then Vs. Now

2012-08-27T07:31:00.001-07:00

Then......2007, now...........now...How things have changed....

Residence Then, my parents house in Crestwood Village, Whiting, NJ(the middle of nowhere)....
Now.......Park Slope, Brooklyn, NY( one of the best neighborhoods in NYC)

Job Then, delivered pizza, and sometimes assistant manager at Domino's Pizza....also, sometimes karaoke host
Now........real estate agent in Brooklyn, NY......also, sometimes karaoke host

Weight Then, 235 lbs.(FAT!).......Now, 185 lbs.(was 170, will get back there)

Relationship Status Then, sad and lonely..........Now, ENGAGED to the most incredible lady I could ask for! :)

Thoughts on reunions Then, too ashamed of my lack of success to attend.........Now, co-organizer of my high school's 25th reunion......

Food Tastes Then, never had sushi, Indian, Thai, avocados, asparagus, spinach, kale, guacamole...
Now........love it all......

Attitude About Life Then, surviving...........Now, Living!!!!!!!

Thanks to all who have contributed to this incredible transformation! You know who you are... :)

#100 - ABBA

2012-08-26T19:22:00.002-07:00

Hi. I know I haven't posted anything in a while. I just have so much going on right now, between the job, my class reunion in October, and my wedding next August, that I haven't had much time to think about blogging. But, I did put together this fun pop music project. It's a list of the top 100 biggest stars of the rock era(1955-) It's compiled by various sources, taking into account album/CD sales and pop single chart success. For dramatic effect, I will count down from #100 to #1. Here's #100: ABBA

Their biggest US hit, Dancing Queen http://youtu.be/xFrGuyw1V8s

ABBA was a Swedish pop/rock/disco group formed in Stockholm in 1972, comprising Agnetha Fältskog, Benny Andersson, Björn Ulvaeus and Anni-Frid Lyngstad. ABBA is an acronym of the first letters of the band members' first names and is sometimes stylized as the registered trademark ᗅᗺᗷᗅ. They became one of the most commercially successful acts in the history of pop music, topping the charts worldwide from 1972 to 1982. They are also known for winning the 1974 Eurovision Song Contest, giving Sweden its first victory in the history of the contest and being the most successful group ever to take part in the contest.

ABBA has sold over 370 million records worldwide and still sell millions of records a year, which makes them one of the best-selling music artists of all time. ABBA was the first pop group to come from a non-English-speaking country that enjoyed consistent success in the charts of English-speaking countries, including the UK,Ireland, the U.S., Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and South Africa. The group also enjoyed significant success in Latin American markets, and recorded a collection of their hit songs in Spanish.

During the band's active years, Fältskog and Ulvaeus were a married couple, as were Lyngstad and Andersson, although both couples later divorced. At the height of their popularity, both relationships were suffering strain which ultimately resulted in the collapse of the Ulvaeus-Fältskog marriage in 1979 and the Andersson-Lyngstad marriage in 1981. These relationship changes were reflected in the group's music, with later compositions including more introspective lyrics.

After ABBA broke up in late 1982, Andersson and Ulvaeus achieved success writing music for the stage while Lyngstad and Fältskog pursued individual solo careers with mixed success. ABBA's music declined in popularity until several films, notably Muriel's Wedding and The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert, revived interest in the group, spawning several tribute bands. In 1999, ABBA's music was adapted into the successful musical Mamma Mia! that toured worldwide. A film of the same name released in 2008 became the highest-grossing film in the United Kingdom that year. The group was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame on 15 March 2010.

Every American Should Watch This Film.....

2012-05-29T16:46:00.001-07:00

This is a link to a film that you, YES YOU should see.............

http://muvi.es/w1660/31829

The Top 250 Songs Of The Rock Era(1955- )

2012-02-25T07:08:00.000-08:00

These are compiled from various sources, including record sales and chart performance. There is a huge influx of songs from the last several years, due to a large number of songs that are staying on top of the charts for a long time. Here's the list.

1. SMOOTH SANTANA FEAT. ROB THOMAS
2. ONE SWEET DAY MARIAH CAREY & BOYZ II MEN
3. I GOTTA FEELING BLACK EYED PEAS
4. I WILL ALWAYS LOVE YOU WHITNEY HOUSTON
5. I'LL MAKE LOVE TO YOU BOYZ II MEN
6. CANDLE IN THE WIND 1997 ELTON JOHN
7. WE BELONG TOGETHER MARIAH CAREY
8. MACARENA LOS DEL RIOS
9. BOOM BOOM POW BLACK EYED PEAS
10. WE FOUND LOVE RIHANNA FEAT. CALVIN HARRIS
11. THE BOY IS MINE BRANDY & MONICA
12. END OF THE ROAD BOYZ II MEN
13. YEAH! USHER FEAT. LIL' JON & LUDACRIS
14. UNBREAK MY HEART TONI BRAXTON
15. PARTY ROCK ANTHEM LMFAO
16. WHATEVER YOU LIKE T.I.
17. LOSE YOURSELF EMINEM
18. DON'T BE CRUEL/HOUND DOG ELVIS PRESLEY
19. TIK TOK KE$HA
20. THE TWIST CHUBBY CHECKER
21. YOU LIGHT UP MY LIFE DEBBY BOONE
22. THE SIGN ACE OF BASE
23. LOVE THE WAY YOU LIE EMINEM FEAT. RIHANNA
24. I SWEAR ALL-4-ONE
25. I'LL BE MISSING YOU PUFF DADDY & FAITH EVANS FEAT. 112
26. LIVE YOUR LIFE T.I. FEAT. RIHANNA
27. INDEPENDENT WOMEN DESTINY'S CHILD
28. ROLLING IN THE DEEP ADELE
29. ROCK AROUND THE CLOCK BILL HALEY & THE COMETS
30. BLEEDING LOVE LEONA LEWIS
31. BIG GIRLS DON'T CRY FERGIE
32. DILEMMA NELLY FEAT. KELLY ROWLAND
33. LOVE LETTERS IN THE SAND PAT BOONE
34. HEY JUDE BEATLES
35. GOLD DIGGER KANYE WEST FEAT. JAMIE FOXX
36. PHYSICAL OLIVIA NEWTON-JOHN
37. CALIFORNIA GURLS KATY PERRY FEAT. SNOOP DOGG
38. MARIA MARIA SANTANA FEAT. THE PRODUCT G&B
39. ENDLESS LOVE DIANA ROSS & LIONEL RICHIE
40. BETTE DAVIS EYES KIM CARNES
41. FOOLISH ASHANTI
42. SEXY AND I KNOW IT LMFAO
43. NO ONE ALICIA KEYS
44. HEY YA OUTKAST
45. IN DA CLUB 50 CENT
46. CRAZY IN LOVE BEYONCE FEAT. JAY-Z
47. IRREPLACEABLE BEYONCE
48. SOMEONE LIKE YOU ADELE
49. LOW FLO RIDA FEAT. T-PAIN
50. BABY BOY BEYONCE FEAT. SEAN PAUL
51. FANTASY MARIAH CAREY
52. ALL SHOOK UP ELVIS PRESLEY
53. DREAMLOVER MARIAH CAREY
54. POKER FACE LADY GAGA
55. THAT'S THE WAY LOVE GOES JANET JACKSON
56. JUMP KRISS KROSS
57. MOVES LIKE JAGGER MAROON 5 FEAT. CHRISTINA AGUILERA
58. LET ME LOVE YOU MARIO
59. E.T. KATY PERRY FEAT. KANYE WEST
60. THA CROSSROADS BONE THUGS-N-HARMONY
61. CANDY SHOP 50 CENT FEAT. OLIVIA
62. FIREWORK KATY PERRY
63. MACK THE KNIFE BOBBY DARIN
64. HIPS DON'T LIE SHAKIRA FEAT. WYCLEF JEAN
65. BAD ROMANCE LADY GAGA
66. BAD DAY DANIEL POWTER
67. GRENADE BRUNO MARS
68. LE FREAK CHIC
69. WATERFALLS TLC
70. PROMISCUOUS NELLY FURTADO FEAT. TIMBALAND
71. HOT IN HERRE NELLY
72. TOO CLOSE NEXT
73. EMPIRE STATE OF MIND JAY-Z FEAT. ALICIA KEYS
74. DOWN JAY SEAN FEAT. LIL WAYNE
75. U GOT IT BAD USHER
76. BURN USHER
77. STAYIN' ALIVE BEE GEES
78. THEME FROM “A SUMMER PLACE” PERCY FAITH
79. EXHALE(SHOOP SHOOP) WHITNEY HOUSTON
80. TAKE A BOW MADONNA
81. UMBRELLA RIHANNA
82. JUST THE WAY YOU ARE BRUNO MARS
83. THE REASON HOOBASTANK
84. LOLLIPOP LIL' WAYNE FEAT. STATIC MAJOR
85. I KISSED A GIRL KATY PERRY
86. EVERY BREATH YOU TAKE THE POLICE
87. SINGLE LADIES BEYONCE
88. FAMILY AFFAIR MARY J. BLIGE
89. NIGHT FEVER BEE GEES
90. YOU'RE STILL THE ONE SHANIA TWAIN
91. BECAUSE YOU LOVED ME CELINE DION
92. FALLIN' ALICIA KEYS
93. HEARTBREAK HOTEL ELVIS PRESLEY
94. OMG USHER FEAT. WILL.I.AM
95. WAITING FOR A GIRL LIKE YOU FOREIGNER
96. RIGHT ROUND FLO RIDA FEAT. KE$HA
97. WORK IT MISSY ELLIOTT
98. TONIGHT'S THE NIGHT(GONNA BE ALRIGHT) ROD STEWART
99. I JUST WANT TO BE YOUR EVERYTHING ANDY GIBB
100. CAN'T HELP FALLING IN LOVE UB40
101. THIS IS HOW WE DO IT MONTELL JORDAN
102. ON BENDED KNEE BOYZ II MEN
103. JAILHOUSE ROCK ELVIS PRESLEY
104. I LOVE YOU ALWAYS FOREVER DONNA LEWIS
105. I'M REAL JENNIFER LOPEZ FEAT. JA RULE
106. SEXY BACK JUSTIN TIMBERLAKE
107. CHECK ON IT BEYONCE
108. JOY TO THE WORLD THREE DOG NIGHT
109. HOT STUFF DONNA SUMMER
110. HOW DO I LIVE LEANN RIMES
111. GOODIES CIARA FEAT. PETEY PABLO
112. SINCE U BEEN GONE KELLY CLARKSON
113. GIVE ME EVERYTHING PITBULL FEAT NE-YO
114. ALL 4 YOU JANET JACKSON
115. THIS LOVE MAROON 5
116.(LET ME BE YOUR) TEDDY BEAR ELVIS PRESLEY
117. CAN'T NOBODY HOLD ME DOWN PUFF DADDY & MASE
118. INFORMER SNOW
119. EYE OF THE TIGER SURVIVOR
120. HOW DEEP IS YOUR LOVE BEE GEES
121. SHADOW DANCING ANDY GIBB
122. JUST DANCE LADY GAGA
123. FOREVER CHRIS BROWN
124. BEHIND THESE HAZEL EYES KELLY CLARKSON
125. AIN'T IT FUNNY JENNIFER LOPEZ FEAT. JA RULE
126. ALONE AGAIN(NATURALLY) GILBERT O'SULLIVAN
127. BILLIE JEAN MICHAEL JACKSON
128. I LOVE ROCK N ROLL JOAN JETT & THE BLACKHEARTS
129. FLASHDANCE(WHAT A FEELING) IRENE CARA
130. AT THE HOP DANNY & THE JUNIORS
131. EVERYTHING I DO(I DO IT FOR YOU) BRYAN ADAMS
132. EBONY AND IVORY PAUL MCCARTNEY & STEVIE WONDER
133. I HEARD IT THROUGH THE GRAPEVINE MARVIN GAYE
134. BLACK OR WHITE MICHAEL JACKSON
135. THE FIRST TIME EVER I SAW YOUR FACE ROBERTA FLACK
136. THE WAY I ARE TIMBALAND FEAT. KERI HILSON
137. MY SHARONA THE KNACK
138. TOSSIN AND TURNIN BOBBY LEWIS
139. THE FIRST NIGHT MONICA
140. RUDE BOY RIHANNA
141. I WANT TO HOLD YOUR HAND BEATLES
142. LADY KENNY ROGERS
143. I'M A BELIEVER MONKEES
144. THE SWEET ESCAPE GWEN STEFANI FEAT. AKON
145. SAY SAY SAY PAUL MCCARTNEY & MICHAEL JACKSON
146. CENTERFOLD J. GEILS BAND
147. CALL ME BLONDIE
148. SILLY LOVE SONGS PAUL MCCARTNEY & WINGS
149. IT'S ALL IN THE GAME TOMMY EDWARDS
150. LOVE ME TENDER ELVIS PRESLEY
151. AQUARIUS/LET THE SUNSHINE IN 5TH DIMENSION
152. I WILL SURVIVE GLORIA GAYNOR
153. I'LL BE THERE JACKSON 5
154. KNOCK THREE TIMES TONY ORLANDO & DAWN
155. MY BOO USHER & ALICIA KEYS
156. ARE YOU LONESOME TONIGHT? ELVIS PRESLEY
157. BEST OF MY LOVE EMOTIONS
158. SHE LOVES YOU BEATLES
159. NOBODY'S SUPPOSED TO BE HERE DEBORAH COX
160. CRAZY GNARLS BARKLEY
161. (JUST LIKE)STARTING OVER JOHN LENNON
162. AMERICAN PIE DON MCLEAN
163. BACK AT ONE BRIAN MCKNIGHT
164. MY SWEET LORD GEORGE HARRISON
165. MAGGIE MAY ROD STEWART
166. IF I EVER FALL IN LOVE SHAI
167. NOTHIN ON YOU B.O.B. FEAT. BRUNO MARS
168. BRIDGE OVER TROUBLED WATER SIMON & GARFUNKEL
169. BAD GIRLS DONNA SUMMER
170. IN THE YEAR 2525 ZAGER & EVANS
171. YOU'RE SO VAIN CARLY SIMON
172. I'M YOUR ANGEL R. KELLY & CELINE DION
173. BRAND NEW KEY MELANIE
174. IT'S TOO LATE CAROLE KING
175. BOOGIE OOGIE OOGIE A TASTE OF HONEY
176. LIKE A VIRGIN MADONNA
177. KILLING ME SOFTLY WITH HIS SONG ROBERTA FLACK
178. ANOTHER ONE BITES THE DUST QUEEN
179. RAINDROPS KEEP FALLING ON MY HEAD B.J. THOMAS
180. THREE TIMES A LADY COMMODORES
181. BABY GOT BACK SIR MIX-A-LOT
182. DO YA THINK I'M SEXY? ROD STEWART
183. YOU'RE BEAUTIFUL JAMES BLUNT
184. WHEN DOVES CRY PRINCE
185. UPSIDE DOWN DIANA ROSS
186. GENIE IN A BOTTLE CHRISTINA AGUILERA
187. IT'S NOW OR NEVER ELVIS PRESLEY
188. DISTURBIA RIHANNA
189. SO WHAT PINK
190. BORN THIS WAY LADY GAGA
191. MY PRAYER PLATTERS
192. I CAN'T STOP LOVING YOU RAY CHARLES
193. (THEY LONG TO BE)CLOSE TO YOU CARPENTERS
194. LET'S GET IT ON MARVIN GAYE
195. TAKE A BOW RIHANNA
196. PARTY IN THE USA MILEY CYRUS
197. SAVE THE BEST FOR LAST VANESSA WILLIAMS
198. LIVIN' LA VIDA LOCA RICKY MARTIN
199. LADY MARMALADE CHRISTINA AGUILERA, LIL' KIM, MYA & PINK
200. REUNITED PEACHES & HERB
201. MY LOVE PAUL MCCARTNEY & WINGS
202. I'D DO ANYTHING FOR LOVE MEAT LOAF
203. RING MY BELL ANITA WARD
204. JUMP VAN HALEN
205. HOW TO SAVE A LIFE THE FRAY
206. IF YOU HAD MY LOVE JENNIFER LOPEZ
207. ALL I HAVE TO DO IS DREAM EVERLY BROTHERS
208. HAVE YOU EVER REALLY LOVED A WOMAN BRYAN ADAMS
209. ALL NIGHT LONG(ALL NIGHT) LIONEL RICHIE
210. LET IT BE BEATLES
211. ONE BAD APPLE OSMONDS
212. TIE A YELLOW RIBBON ROUND THE OLE OAK TREE TONY ORLANDO & DAWN
213. MANEATER DARYL HALL & JOHN OATES
214. RUSH, RUSH PAULA ABDUL
215. DYNAMITE TAIO CRUZ
216. LOVE IS BLUE PAUL MAURIAT
217. BIG GIRLS DON'T CRY FOUR SEASONS
218. KISS YOU ALL OVER EXILE
219. BIG BAD JOHN JIMMY DEAN
220. SUGAR SHACK JIMMY GILMER & THE FIREBALLS
221. TEQUILA CHAMPS
222. WATER RUNS DRY BOYZ II MEN
223. WHATCHA SAY JASON DERULO
224. LAST FRIDAY NIGHT KATY PERRY
225. HONEY BOBBY GOLDSBORO
226. LONDON BRIDGE FERGIE
227. GIVES YOU HELL ALL-AMERICAN REJECTS
228. TEENAGE DREAM KATY PERRY
229. DON'T ELVIS PRESLEY
230. THE WAY WE WERE BARBRA STREISAND
231. WHAT'S MY NAME RIHANNA FEAT. DRAKE
232. HOW YOU REMIND ME NICKELBACK
233. AIRPLANES B.O.B. FEAT. EMINEM
234. SAY IT RIGHT NELLY FURTADO
235. ANOTHER BRICK IN THE WALL PINK FLOYD
236. SUGAR, SUGAR ARCHIES
237. VENUS FRANKIE AVALON
238. CRAZY LITTLE THING CALLED LOVE QUEEN
239. MACARTHUR PARK DONNA SUMMER
240. TOO MUCH HEAVEN BEE GEES
241. TO SIR WITH LOVE LULU
242. FIREFLIES OWL CITY
243. CATHY'S CLOWN EVERLY BROTHERS
244. RUN IT! CHRIS BROWN
245. LOVE THEME FROM A STAR IS BORN BARBRA STREISAND
246. PEOPLE GOT TO BE FREE RASCALS
247. DECEMBER 1963(OH, WHAT A NIGHT) FOUR SEASONS
248. HURTS SO GOOD JOHN COUGAR MELLENCAMP
249. BEAT IT MICHAEL JACKSON
250. SET FIRE TO THE RAIN ADELE

Part Of Why I Support Ron Paul(borrowed from my good friend, Yoram)

2012-02-16T08:53:00.000-08:00

If Apple had a monopoly on mobile phones and would not allow competition than that would be illegal. But let's say they did and they were the only mobile phone manufacturer. If they built IPhones that had no guts and was just a shell and sold it as a functioning phone, how long would it take for them to be in hot water and have criminal charges against them? Not too long. Heads would roll!

Well folks, this is exactly what the Federal Reserve is doing with our currency. They are printing them at whim without our consent and giving them away to their buddy banks and Wall St. These dollars were once backed by 100% gold. That's what kept them in check so as to their value and it would limit how much that could be printed. Now they are backed by 0% gold. These are nothing more than IOU's, debt! They are printing us into debt! They are devaluing our money everyday! How can Americans be free this way? We have lost our sovereignty and most of us don't even know it.

Why are the American people allowing a private bank, accountable to NO ONE, to print all of us into debt? The Federal Reserve is a monopoly and must be stopped. As long as they have this power they will continue to cause bubbles and hurt the middle class and poor. The Dollar has lost over 95% of its value since this private bank received the exclusive right to print and control our money supply in 1913. They are a monopoly and they were brought in to stabilize the market but history shows they have done nothing but destabilize it!

Americans please wake up, can't you see we have become a fascist, welfare-warfare state, we don't even declare the wars and send our men to die with money printed out of thin air to pay for it! The system is working against almost all of us!

Do you really think Mitt Romney or Newt or Santorum or Obama will challenge the system. NO!! They are gaining from it! The only real candidate with real solutions is Ron Paul! He is challenging the system and look at what the GOP is doing. It is being totally fraudulent. Look at Maine, they are not counting thousands of votes yet, and Romney won by less than 200. How can he be the winner this way? Pay attention folks because your life and your future is at stake!

VOTE FOR LIBERTY! VOTE FOR RON PAUL!

It's Been A While

2012-01-30T06:40:00.000-08:00

Sorry that I haven't been posting lately. A lot of other things have occupied my mind. My new job search, my Amazon business, my DJ business, the Giants march to the Super Bowl, my high school reunion in October that I'm helping to organize, and how the mainstream media is ignoring Ron Paul, the last chance to save this country from the Military-Industrial-Corporate Complex....but I will get back to posting on here again. There actually is a lot to write about, and I'm sure there will be more topics popping up as we go along.
I will start posting about my Gamblers Anonymous experience. I have been attending meetings since September and it has been a big help in getting me to control that addiction. I will not gamble, because I don't know how to stop, once I start. I committed to solving that issue, because I needed to prove to myself that I could get that under control. I also needed to show Katie, my lady, that I could conquer that problem and that she could trust me, and not worry about our financial situation. I will have much more to write about Katie and I as we go along....

Grand Opening Sale!

2011-11-12T15:58:00.000-08:00

At www.lizardautographs.com, it's 20% off everything for the rest of November. Have the honor of being one of my first customers. You would always have a special place in my heart, if you do, for whatever that's worth! :)

lizardautographs.com

2011-11-05T09:17:00.001-07:00

www.lizardautographs.com

CHECK IT OUT!!!! My new E-biz!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Chapter Five: Burnout At St. John's U.

2011-10-31T15:08:00.001-07:00

It’s September of ’87 and “Here I go again on my own” is playing on every radio in the USA. It’s also a very fitting description of what I am doing, education-wise. As a good chunk of my fellow Stuy graduates are Ivy-league bound and many others are going the SUNY and CUNY routes, I decided to stay local and go to class with several of my neighborhood friends, at St. John’s University in Jamaica, Queens. There’s Mikey P, Jimmy F, Jeff A., Donna S, Anissa M. and good ‘ol Dave R., my former St. Stan’s classmate. It’s nice to run into them in the hallways, but somehow, like freshman year at Stuyvesant, I felt that I didn’t fit in there. I wasn’t energized to compete with my classmates, like I did at St. Stan’s or Stuy. I wasn’t even religious anymore, at all. I had my doubts about religion since the 7th grade. I was asking all the tough questions that Sr. Magdalen did not want to answer and it made her dislike me more than a bit in 8th grade, plus some of my Stuy friends were not ashamed to admit their doubts about religion. All of that was convincing enough for me. By the time I reached St. John’s, I was an atheist at a Catholic University. I totally felt lost and I knew in my gut that I had picked the wrong major, Accounting. But there I was, taking Accounting 1, Economics, English Literature (which I was never into) and Theology (which I was not interested in, at this point). I basically went through the motions that fall semester. I studied enough to earn at least a ‘C’ in each class, with a ‘B’ in Accounting I and Economics. I spent more time focused on working after school, as a foot messenger for a Wall St. firm and hanging out, under aged in a few bars in the East Village, than in studying and did even more of both, the spring semester. It’s a wonder that my grades slightly improved in the 2nd semester, taking Accounting II, Creative Writing, Economics II, and Theology II. I finished the year with a GPA of 2.95 but, I knew that either my major would change to something more interesting or I would transfer to a CUNY like Hunter or Baruch or I would drop out completely and spend some time soul-searching for what I wanted to do career-wise. Right at the end of class for the summer, I was hired by UPS as an overnight, truck loader. I worked on 43rd St. and 12th Ave. from 4am to 9am. Perfect hours for stumbling out of the bar and going to work, NOT! Even though it had very good benefits, including college tuition help, I was not disciplined enough to keep the job. I actually went there drunk several times. I quit after three months. Certainly not the smartest thing I’ve ever done. As for my school situation, by August ’88, I knew I wasn’t returning to St. John’s, but I was still undecided what to do. I contacted CUNY and the only school that would accept me at this late date was Hunter, but I would have to go without a major and maybe decide by the Spring of ’89. I registered and decided to take Economic courses, towards that major. I was happy to see some familiar faces there. There were several former Stuy classmates, including one female that I had a massive crush on, Sami and also my former St. Stan’s classmate, Lynn L. I thought maybe Hunter would be fun, but the issue of still not being sure of the major and just complete laziness compelled me to withdraw from all of my classes, after a week. The thought in my mind was, maybe I’ll focus on work and land a great job, that could become my career, or I would be inspired to choose what I would really want, as a major, and return to school. Unfortunately, neither would happen.

Chapter Four: My Stuy Years

2011-10-26T05:35:00.000-07:00

There I was, out of over 13,000 applicants, one of the 450 freshmen entering the school in September 1983. I was the only St. Stanislaus grad from ‘83 entering the school that year. It was a fantastic opportunity in so many ways. Besides the great opportunity to be enrolled in probably the very best high school, public or private in New York, with some of the best teachers that you will find anywhere and the absolute cream of the crop of NYC students, it was also a chance for me to start all over with a new bunch of classmates, many of which from completely different backgrounds instead of the mostly all Catholic classmates I had for eight years. Also the new teachers, some of them would be highly enjoyable and interesting, and others, who I would despise on a daily basis. I would also find out quite a bit about myself, as a teenager and the first real opportunity to experience the idea of meeting girls and maybe having a date or two.
Realistically, I knew that my chances of dating were very slim because of one very basic problem, I was very painfully shy. I could hardly look any nice girl in the eye, and talking to them? I was deathly afraid of that. I did make a couple of female friends early on, but maybe they were only really classmates that I happened to sit next to. I also made several male friends, but our conversations were usually very short, because a period was only 40 minutes, and with all the classes and studying, and traveling that most of the students had to do, from all five boroughs of NYC, and a whirlwind of different students all around, a far cry from the 21 classmates I had in 8th grade. I also think that being so different from the kids that I was used to, spooked me out a bit. I didn’t really understand where most of these new classmates came from, and that made me end up feeling fairly outcast and inferior, in some ways.
Grade-wise, I held my own. I did ok in Ms. DiBellis’ Algebra class(I had her both semesters), Dr. Bindman’s and Ms. Evans English classes, Mr. Tiseo’s Italian class(I did have a slight advantage there, being half-Italian) and gym was always an automatic 95 or higher. The other subjects, especially the Science class, which was biology, freshman year, was a bit more challenging for me. I usually ended up with a 70-80 mark. I use the excuse that we were not taught science very well at St. Stan’s and I had to play catch-up at Stuy. Now I know that some of you will say, wait a minute, isn’t Stuy known as a math and science school? Well yes, but the entrance exam was Math and English, which were probably my two best subjects. That’s why I passed the exam. I didn’t do really well in History either. It seemed like a lot of facts and figures to remember and Mr. Lugo, who I had fall semester was someone I didn’t really like too much. I barely passed that class. I did a little better with Mr. Hendricks in the spring. I ended up with an 83.5 average for freshman year, which as a B- average isn’t bad, but with all the brilliant students in the class, I was certainly in the bottom half. The one joy that I had was being able to make the bowling team in my freshman year. I didn’t get to really compete in the matches too much because only the top eight on the team usually got to play. I bowled when someone else couldn’t make it. We did win the PSAL Manhattan championship, but I didn’t really make a difference. I knew that I had three more years to shine, though. With all the all other extra-curricular activities at Stuyvesant, I didn’t really participate in anything else, which I regret. I was in the choir at St. Stan’s from 3rd grade through 6th. I can’t explain why I wasn’t involved in the Concert Chorus, the Gospel or Renaissance Choir. I guess my shyness really prevented me from being active.
Sophmore year brought 300 more students to the class, from all the graduating junior high schools in the city. As the year started, I did attempt to be a little more active at the school. I joined the computer club for a while and started to hang with a bunch of witty, creative and very funny people. They were unofficially known as the “Lunatic Fringe”. I wasn’t really part of the crew, but I did attempt to hang around them a bit. I wasn’t as witty as them, but I held my own, in my opinion. My grades were pretty much the same as Freshman year. I finished with an 84 average as a Sophmore. I can’t explain how I got through Chemistry class with Ms. Bulgaris, considering I barely could figure out what the heck she was talking about all semester, and I cut that class quite a bit, just from boredom. I absolutely loved Geometry class with Mr. Jaye. It was fun and I did really well on his tests. I was distracted by the beauty of a certain English teacher I had, but of course, being very shy prevented me from even looking at her an inappropriate amount. Speaking of attraction, I started to notice a certain female classmate a lot(I’m choosing not to mention her name), but once again, other than a few small talk conversations either in the auditorium or at lunch, we didn’t really get to know each other very well, but she has stuck in my mind, ever since. She is someone that I would refer to as the lady of my dreams. Luckily, that’s over with now, but I freely admit that it was an unhealthy torment for me, for a long time. I was in a few classes with this girl, and I was certainly distracted by her presence. It’s hard to explain, it was just something about her.
There were also a few girls that hung out in my neighborhood, who had my attention at that time, but they looked at me as a good friend, but not someone that they wanted to be involved with romantically. That was a dilemma that plagued me for a very long time. Before I was so shy and not very popular, I didn’t really give anyone a chance to know me very well, which was a huge mistake.
At least my activities outside the classroom gave me some joy that year. The Stuy bowling team went all the way to the PSAL Championship match. We bowled against Susan Wagner HS (from Staten Island) and I had the highest score, a 193, but our team lost the city championship by 6 pins. That was a heartbreaker. I still agonize over why I didn’t bowl a 200, to this day. Those lanes were easy at Maple Lanes in Brooklyn. Oh well. I was still proud that we went all the way to the city finals, and I still have that medal somewhere in a box.
As I moved on to junior year, the fall semester, for me, would be my favorite semester of the eight. Two teachers I had, made the Stuy experience a lot more enjoyable for me. One of them would be fairly predictable, for those who know about Stuy and the legend of Frank McCourt. I had him for creative writing and it was amazingly enjoyable. He had an incredible sense of humor and his stories were absolutely captivating. I was among many of his students that strongly suggested that he put all of his stories together in a book. His incredibly sad and disturbing childhood stories became the amazing bestseller “Angela’s Ashes” and I honestly cannot say that I am surprised by his success at all. That’s how riveting a story teller he was in class. He also was a tremendous inspiration to students who wrote. I never really considered myself to have any skill in writing, before his class. Since then, I’ve always had the itch to want to write something, but I never really acted on it until the last few years, with my blog “Late Blooming Stuy Guy” and what you are reading right now. Back to the class, the boost I received by the experience was the way that Mr. McCourt allowed everyone a chance to shine. He wanted everyone to come up to the front of the class and read what they wrote each week and the positive response from my classmate for my writing made me feel great, and that newly found confidence affected my work in every class from then on, at Stuy.
The other teacher that brought me a lot of joy, was a lady that was a very important part of my early childhood development. Her name was Ms. Latham, yes the same Ms. Latham that lived across the hall from me and was my babysitter from time to time. You can imagine how excited I was when I found out that she was promoted to teach at Stuy and I would have her as a teacher, but, I would realize that it would be also very stressful for me, because I knew that I had to really excel in her class to not disappoint her. It was trigonometry and I was focused on not letting her down. I also had the circumstance of having “The Lady of My Dreams” as a classmate. I knew that Math was her best subject and I would probably be competing with her to get the highest grade in the class, and I was right, as I finished with a 98 in the class and she had a 99. It was a great experience and I was happy to have another chance to thank Ms. Latham for her role in my childhood.
I also had Mr. Rutkowski for Music Appreciation, which was interesting because he was also my Bowling coach. The funny thing is he didn’t show any favoritism towards me, but he didn’t really need to. I’ve always loved music and did well in the class, anyway. It ended up being a very good year grade-wise for me, with a 92.5 average. I knew getting into an Ivy League school was not going to happen at this point, even with a 1220 on the SAT, but I felt that I was certainly smart enough to be at Stuy and that I belonged and I was proud of myself.
In the summer of ’86, I had a new job. I worked down the block from my building on Avenue A at a place called Kim’s Video. It was a fun experience, but it was weird, in the sense that my co-workers were mostly punk rockers and I certainly didn’t fit in with them. The owner was a nice Korean guy that had an interesting taste in videos. They would rent all the latest releases, but some very odd choices as well, like Eraserhead and Attack of The Killer Tomatoes. Considering how the neighborhood would change due to gentrification and become a super trendy area, he was ahead of his time with his taste in movies. I would work there for more than a year, and would get to see a lot of movies for free.
I would return for Senior year and feel a myriad of emotions. Excitement, that we ruled the school and were just a year away from college life. Also that I had become a little more confident that I could get along with classmates and have stronger friendships, but also sadness that I wasted the first three years being so shy and hesitant to talk to everyone. I was also realizing how amazing the Stuy experience really was and in some ways, I wished that I had more time to be there. I had a few interesting classes that year, like Mr. Phillips for Statistics. I enjoyed the class (had a 97 in it) and found him to be a lunatic. I swore that if he told that silly “sneaker story” one more time, that I would vomit. I don’t even remember what it was about, but I know he talked about it a little too much. The spring semester would be a breeze, only four classes, including gym, but I had to deal with hell on Earth for Pre-Calculus, Mr. Fisher. To say I despised the man is a huge understatement. He was the nastiest, dirtiest piece of crap that I’ve ever met. I tried for weeks to get transferred to another class, but no luck. I had to deal with him and just get through it. One morning, I was not feeling well and did not study a certain few pages of problems. With my luck, he calls me up to the blackboard to solve one of the problems. I wasn’t sure of myself, and hesitated to answer the problem. He yelled, “Go sit down, you moron” and the class laughed. I was totally embarrassed and wanted to go home. I was angry the whole rest of the semester and put a damper on my graduation excitement. I did end up with an 85 in the class and after scoring a 93 on the final exam, I told him; “Am I still a moron?” Surprisingly, he laughed and shook my hand. I guess I should feel lucky.
As we approached the final months at Stuy, I had a tough decision in terms of college. I was accepted at Pace, St. John’s, SUNY Albany and CUNY Baruch and Hunter. I did not make SUNY Binghamton and NYU. I knew that The CUNY schools would be the most affordable, but a bunch of my friends from childhood were going to St. John’s and they had a good Accounting program, which would be my major. I decided to go to St. John’s.
As the spring semester, and my Stuy days were winding down, I was surprised by the number of classmates that would come by and wish me luck, and those who were willing to sign my yearbook. It made me realize that even though I was shy and not very outgoing, others realized that I was a nice guy and that I was part of the class. I truly wished I had another year to get to know these people a little more and it dawned on me that I was lucky to have those four years there.
Graduation day arrived and it was cool to have the ceremony at Avery Fisher Hall in Lincoln Center. The one thought in my mind was “Darn, I’m going to miss these people”, Though I knew there would be reunions in the future and with 750 classmates, I was certain to run into some of them as the years go on. It really felt good to be a Stuy graduate. The question would be: What would I do with that experience?

My School Years: St. Stan's

2011-10-24T05:16:00.007-07:00

September 3rd, 1975 was my first day of school at Saint Stanislaus. I can’t say that I remember a whole lot of what occurred in those first days of school. I do know that it must have been quite unusual to suddenly be around a whole bunch of new kids and not just my class, but the 1st and 2nd grade classes were together in the same room. Sr. Fidelia taught both classes. She did have all of the 1st graders sit together on one side of the room and the 2nd graders on the other side. I did make friends relatively quickly, especially with the boys and girls who lived in a housing co-op a block from my building called Village View. I had starting hanging out with some of them, before starting school. There was Peter Jarema, Allan Heck and Paul Kim. Also, there was Roman Strawa and Johnny Miller., who were in 2nd grade as I was starting 1st grade. There were also a few others who my brothers had already known. Like Joey Opalka and Lynn LiCausi and Diane Krawiec. Attending class every day helped make the other students become very familiar over time. I got to know Helene Bracero, Helen Bala, Susie Gregorczyk Jose Guzman and Jose Marrero very well over those years.
Sr. Fidelia left a negative impression in my mind. She was frightening with her meanness, at times. Two incidents, involving me, stick out in my mind. She was a brutal disciplinarian, and she loved to punish late-comers to class by grabbing a ruler and slapping the students on the hands with them. I usually wasn’t late, because my mother would walk me and my brother Rocco to school. I think there was one day, where Rocco was a little slow getting ready for school and we ended up being a few minutes late. She did her usual punishment and whacked me with her ruler. I cried and later complained to my mother, that I was whacked on the hands for something that wasn’t my fault. The next day, my mother came into school and demanded to see the principal and complained that the discipline was excessive. I think the principal agreed, because it didn’t really happen anymore. The other incident was something where I truly deserved my punishment. In an attempt to try and fit in with the more mischievous students, because I was usually very well-behaved, I listened to my classmate Allan, who advised me to get friendlier with Lynn, a female classmate, by lifting up her skirt. She screamed, both classes laughed at me and Sr. Fidelia grabbed me by my hair and yanked me down the hall to the principal’s office and made me write 100 times: I must behave in class. I also had to say I’m sorry to Lynn in front of both classes. Being a very shy young boy, that was way more difficult than all the writing I had to do. I was also intimidated by the issue she had with her fingers. Two of them were severed, apparently by an incident involving a meat slicer, where her hand slipped. She had tape over her fingers and that issue caused me to want to keep my distance from her.
Despite these moments of behavior issues and this unusual nun, I did very well in school, right from the start. My report card was full of A’s and B’s and it was always an A in Math. I wanted to be the smartest student in the class and I felt that my competition for that honor was Lynn and another girl named Bretta Robertson. They were both very smart and pretty girls. As a little boy, I was really excited about learning and some classmates really respected me and others probably learned to dislike me a bit. At the end of 1st grade, Sr. Fidelia thought I was smart enough to skip 2nd grade and go straight into 3rd, but the principal didn’t want the school to lose a year’s tuition and offered to allow the skip, if my parents paid the year’s tuition. My parents refused to do that, even though I was excited with the chance to move ahead to 3rd grade. I went into 2nd grade and the school decided to keep our two classes together which were now 2nd and 3rd grade and the 3rd grade teacher, Ms. Martel became the 1st grade teacher. I was happy because it gave me another year to really get to know the 3rd graders, like Johnny M., Johnny Zadubara., Cheryl Grogan, Denise Hart, Donna Spatafora and several others. A sad thing happened right after Christmas/New Year’s vacation. The day after New Year’s, January 2, 1977, my grandfather, Guiseppe(Joseph), passed away from a heart attack, basically a block from his building on St. Mark’s Place. My family really mourned his loss and also many people in the neighborhood, he was there basically since he came to this country from Ellis Island. I missed a whole week of school, which I was not happy about, but I continued to do very well, grade wise. I also started going to an after-school program at a place called the Cardinal Spellman Center, located on 2nd Street. Some of my St. Stan’s classmates went there and also many students from another school, Most Holy Redeemer, which was located on 3rd Street. I started getting to know many of them. One that became a very good friend for a long time was Nick Marzulla. He was a funny, sarcastic, smart guy that was really into sports. We hit it off pretty well and spent a lot of time in our youth hanging out together. His parents were always very nice to me and I spent a good amount of time at their apartment on Orchard St.
I also spent an increasing amount of time hanging around the buildings of Village View. I had already known several of the kids who were friends with my brothers. I liked to tag along quite a bit with those people, because it seemed that they were having more fun than those who were my age, plus some of the younger friends liked to make fun or pick on me a bit. I didn’t really enjoy that and it started to snowball into a steady problem that made a shy boy go deeper into a shell. It was something I had to deal with throughout my young life.
3rd grade was interesting to me, because it was the first time we didn’t have to share a classroom with anybody. Also, for the fact that our teacher, Ms. Patricia Naughton was a lot nicer than Sr. Fidelia. She was tough when she had to be, but the class, on the whole, behaved well. There were several new students in the class, including Dave Ropiak, who was a brilliant child that was skipped ahead from 1st to 3rd Grade. I’ll assume that his parents paid a full year’s tuition for him to be skipped ahead. The year as a whole, wasn’t very eventful, but I do have to say that I started to think about some of the girls in the class, in terms of who I liked. I was undecided who I liked the most. Sometimes it was Lynn, sometimes Bretta, sometimes Diane, but it didn’t totally occupy my mind. I was only 8 years old. I was more focused on Reggie Jackson and the Yankees winning the World Series and on Saturday Night Fever and the Bee Gee’s. Also, that I was glad that the Son of Sam was caught.
4th grade started off on a bit of a downer when I found out that Bretta was moving to New Jersey. As I mentioned, she was a favorite of mine and I was disappointed. It was time to have another nun as a teacher, Sr. Mary Vincent. I enjoyed her teaching a lot more than the last two. She made it fun to learn in her class, and I really excelled. I had straight A’s on the last two report cards. I also joined the choir that year and enjoyed singing at church, even though I was picked on at times, for doing that. I was told that I was a sissy for joining, but I didn’t care. The music teacher, Mr. Perry, was skilled at teaching music, and I enjoyed it. I was also excited that my brother, Rocco was graduating. I loved him but I felt overshadowed by him, in a way. He was one of the more popular guys in school and I wished that I was as popular. Once he did graduate, I continued to do very well grade-wise, but I never felt that I truly fit in.
5th grade was a fairly eventful year for me and the class. Ms. Aguila was the teacher and she always struck me as being quite unusual. Her teaching style was a little different from other teachers I’ve experienced. Somehow, I was able to do exceptionally well in that class. I had straight A’s on all four report cards. I’ve always been a little proud of that. It was the last year with Paul Kim as a classmate. He moved to Yonkers afterwards. He was one of my favorite classmates and I missed him. There were also several new classmates, including a buddy of mine that grew up around the corner on 6th St., Jimmy Duval. He always was a very funny guy and was so cool to be around and I also knew that he would never make fun of me, like many of the others I hung out with. He became probably my closest friend for the last four years at St. Stan’s and we would always walk home from school together and talk about what went on in class. There were other interesting new classmates, Like Kevin Murray and Kris Williams that were both fun guys that made the class laugh quite a bit.
I had a bit of a health issue that popped up in that school year that was difficult. I started getting a lot of headaches. Some that would make me very nauseous or vomit quite a bit. It caused me to miss a good chunk of days of class. It was a mystery for a while to figure out what was causing them. It seemed to be at least once a week, if not more that it was occurring. My mother took me to the doctor, then another doctor, then a specialist. Since my mother and my aunt Marie had migraines, it was pretty much assumed that’s what they were. The question was what was triggering them. Over the course of time, I realized that nearly every time I had chocolate, I was getting a migraine. Obviously I had to stop eating it, which was a big heartache because I loved it, whether it was a candy bar, a chocolate egg cream or a bottle of Yoo-Hoo. There were also situations where stress was causing them and I did cut back a bit on hanging out with those who were making fun of me all the time.
In 6th grade, Mr. Doyle was the teacher and I found him to be interesting in some ways but a little unusual. He liked to play music a lot in class. Sometimes it would be classical, sometimes the Beatles or Simon & Garfunkel. I personally enjoyed it, being a music fanatic, but I could imagine for those who were more into other types of music, it was pretty boring. He certainly played more Beatles songs after December 8th, 1980 when John Lennon was murdered. I always had an appreciation for the Beatles, but didn’t comprehend how much of a hero John Lennon was to me until after his death. I learned about how he was such a peace activist and stood up against the establishment. I was sad to think of what he could have done, if he wasn’t murdered. It was the first celebrity death that had that kind of effect on me.
I wasn’t really much of an athletic child, though I did play softball and punch ball and a little bit of football and basketball, at the playgrounds and parks. At this point, I did find the sport that I enjoyed the most in my youth, and most of my life, for that matter: bowling. My parents would sometimes take me to bowl, with my brothers just to have a good time. Joe had become a very good bowler by then, with his very nifty hook shot. He was in the leagues and had won some trophies already. He also worked at Bowlmor Lanes, behind the counter, assigning lanes and renting shoes. Rocco wasn’t a bad bowler either, though his shot was more very hard and down the middle of the lane. I used to just roll the ball down the middle with two hands and didn’t do very well, but Joe worked on having me actually put my fingers in the holes and shooting the ball like a normal bowler. Once I did that, my scores improved quite a bit, enough for me to join the junior leagues at Bowlmor Lanes every Saturday morning. That was the end of my cartoon watching on Saturdays. My mother ended up getting hired as a bartender on Saturdays, but was mostly making cheeseburgers and fries for the kids who were bowling. I made a few new friends there, including Jace Rafter and Danny Marks, who I bowled with for a few years and Jeff Katz, who would later become a High School teammate. I was very hooked on the game and would participate in leagues for the next 30 years, but that first year, I only averaged a 97 but would continue to improve through the years. My first bowling ball was a Columbia 300 Red Dot and I had my name put on it. In my youth, it was a prized possession.
At this point in time, I started noticing girls a little bit more. I was 11, and though I didn’t quite reach puberty yet, I was paying attention to the friends who were starting to discuss being involved with girls. The two that stick out in my mind are Allan, who always seemed to be chasing after girls and Peter, who is the person who first told me about the birds and the bees, in graphic detail. Thanks for that, Pete. I also hung out with Roman quite a bit, who started to become pretty active with the girls in the neighborhood. I, of course had no such luck, and wouldn’t for a long time.
7th grade would become my most enjoyable year at St. Stan’s, by far. The teacher, Mr. Broughton, was an incredibly enjoyable and understanding teacher. He certainly taught with his own style, which was something that the principal and nuns of St. Stan’s didn’t really appreciate. After missing 18 days of class in 5th grade, mostly because of headaches and 13 days of class in 6th grade, mostly because of boredom, I only missed one day of class in 7th grade. That’s how much I enjoyed being in that class. He always was real and very honest with us, which was very much appreciated, for sure. He also liked to take us on class trips. We had several, including four in the final week of school. We also put on a wonderful play. We did a take on Grease that was truly remarkable. He was very skilled with teaching all of us dance moves and I feel that it was the most enjoyable play that I was ever involved in.
I was sad that Angelique Rivera was not in our class anymore. Her family had moved to Queens. I had always gotten along pretty well with her. There was a wave of new classmates as well. Richie Vasquez became a buddy of mine and Theresa Cruz was a favorite of mine as well. There was also Michelle Vasquez, Leslie Diaz, Maria Bassini and Patricia Venditti.
One thing that I was proud of that year was that we had a Math contest and I was the winner for the class. I then competed with the top 7th graders in each catholic school in Manhattan and I finished 2nd out of about 25 schools. I remember Monsignor Karpinski met with me at the rectory, congratulated me, and gave me $20. He said “Don’t tell your parents I gave you this or that I’m sitting here with a big bottle of wine”. He had obviously drunk a lot of it.
I also had my first real teenage crush that year. As I stated earlier, I spent a lot of time hanging out by the Village View buildings, near where I grew up and though I knew most of the girls who lived there, I was always very shy when the girls were around and I never really gave them a chance to get to know me. There was one specific girl who caught my eye. Her name was Theresa Dougherty, and I can’t really explain what it was about her, except that she was a very smart girl and she was friendly enough for me to at least have some interesting conversations with her. Nothing ever really came of it and her family moved away in the beginning of the summer of ’82. Her brother Bryan was very cool as well and I would miss them after they moved away.
One thing that sticks out in my mind about 1982 is how good the music was that year. It is my favorite year when you consider that “I Love Rock N Roll” by Joan Jett & the Blackhearts, “Eye of the Tiger” by Survivor, “Open Arms” by Journey, “Tainted Love” by Soft Cell, and “Don’t You Want Me” by the Human League were all hits that year and Michael Jackson’s “Thriller” came out at the end of the year. I was an avid Billboard chart follower and I religiously listened to Casey Kasem’s American Top 40. I would root for certain songs to go up the chart each week and I became a music trivia expert. You could give me the name of a song or an artist and I could tell you the peak position for nearly every song. It was useless information, but it was fun to amaze people with that knowledge.
At the end of the summer, I had a fight with Dave Ropiak and he busted my nose. That is the only bone I have ever broken in my whole life. I still say it was a lucky punch, but anyway, I felt like the Elephant Man with a mask on my nose for a week. Luckily, the doctor removed it the Friday before the start of 8th grade. You could imagine the embarrassment if I had to walk into class with that on my face. I guess I should have taken that as a sign of how 8th grade would be for me. After all the good feelings I had with the experience of Mr. Broughton’s class the year before, I absolutely despised Sr. Magdalen and couldn’t wait to graduate. She was mean to nearly everyone in the class and many mornings I dreaded the thought of being there. One morning she sent me back home because I didn’t do a homework assignment. She also kicked Jose Guzman, one of my closest friends since 1st grade, out of the school for repeated missed homework assignments. She was also a very strict grader. Hardly anyone received any A’s in her class. The one thing that angered me the most was the process of testing to get into high schools. I first took the co-op exam for entrance into Catholic high schools. I made every school, except for Regis and I had picked La Salle Academy as my first choice and made it. I then took the test for the top public high schools, at Stuyvesant and I picked Stuy as my first choice, because it was the best and it was within walking distance, only nine blocks from home. When they came back with the results, they announced that no one from the class had made Stuyvesant, but that was not true. The school secretary, Dorothy Luckashenak(thank goodness for her) called my mother and told her that I had made it, along with my classmates Lynn and Dave and that she should go to Stuy and talk to them about letting me go there, because it was probably past the deadline to commit. That is exactly what my mother did. The story was that I had originally missed making it by one point, but there was an error in the answer key and I had actually scored the exact amount needed to make it. Apparently, Sr. Magdalen knew this and didn’t tell me. When she found out that I was going there anyway, despite her actions, she told me that I was making a mistake and I wouldn’t do well there because I couldn’t compete with these other talented students.
From that point on, I was very unhappy with her and I was counting the days until graduation. It also left a bitter taste for St. Stan’s for several years for me. I only attended one event there over the next six years, until they closed in 1989 due to lack of attendance, which was the graduation for the class of ’85, because I had several friends in that class. The rest of the year was fairly uneventful and June 18th, graduation day was a very happy day, though I would miss my classmates after that day, I was thrilled to know that I would be attending Stuyvesant in the fall.

My School Years: St. Stan's

2011-10-24T05:16:00.005-07:00

My School Years: St. Stan's

2011-10-24T05:16:00.003-07:00

Chapter Two(My Family)

2011-10-23T05:54:00.000-07:00

My father, Rocco, was born on March 28, 1936 in Manhattan. His parents, Giuseppe (Joseph) Battaglia and Frances Bonnano were both Sicilian immigrants who came from Palermo in each of their childhoods, around 1920 and met here. My father has an older sister, my aunt Beatrice (who was called Bee-Bee), a younger sister, my aunt Marie, and a younger brother, my uncle Paul. They all grew up in a railroad room apartment on St. Mark’s Place (coincidentally, across the street from St. Stan’s, where I went to school). My father was an average student in school but my grandfather, who ran a fruit and vegetable stand on the upper west side, needed help to keep the business going. My father dropped out of high school after 9th grade to help him. It may have been a disadvantage to not have completed high school, but the experience of working for his father must have been a help later on, as he went to work in the supermarket business.
My mother, Mary, was born on April 21, 1937, also in Manhattan. Her father, Robert Tissier immigrated from Marseille, France in his youth and her mother, Thelma Leslie was half Scottish and half Irish. She has an older brother, my uncle Robert Jr. and three step-sisters, my aunts Jeannie, Jo Ann and Theresa. My mother’s childhood was fairly difficult with her parents divorcing and having to move around several times in her youth, including Brooklyn, on 4th St, 6th St and Charles St. in Manhattan. The constant distractions from her home life affected her ability to focus on studying and she dropped out in 10th grade in high school. She did land a job with New York Telephone as a switchboard operator and stayed there for several years, until she had her first child.
My parents met through my uncle Robert, who friended my father because of their hanging with the same friends at a malt shop on East 5th St. My parents started dating in 1953 and didn’t have an easy time of it, through no fault of their own. My father’s parents, both from a very traditional Italian background, had a hard time accepting my mother, who was not Italian. They stood firm and continued to date. They decided to get married at City Hall in 1957 and saved up for a church ceremony and reception a year later. My father was 21 and my mother was 20. Despite some ups and downs, they have made it work out, for all these years.
My brother, Joseph Paul Battaglia was born in 1961 and was and still is a charismatic, friendly and caring guy that has always been very supportive of me. He was always popular among his friends, classmates and relatives. He was always very active in sports, whether it was playing stickball on 7th Street, basketball in school or in the Village View playground, softball in leagues for many years or probably his best sport, bowling, where he was always among the best in his leagues. He did relatively well in school and graduated from Immaculata HS in 1979. Career-wise, he bounced around a bit, but has been successful in retail sales for a long time. He always liked to be where the action was, which made life fun for him, but probably caused him some problems as well. He met the lady who would become his wife, Rosalie, at a house party in the Mill Basin section of Brooklyn. They hit it off very well, and after a few years, ended up marrying in 1990. They now live in Jamesburg, NJ and have two sons, Anthony and Michael.
My other brother, Rocco Joseph Battaglia Jr. was born in 1965 and has many of the same qualities as Joe and myself, but his focus was always on two things that neither of us really focused on, women and cars. While Joe and I were always perfectly happy with hanging out with the fellas, or watching or playing sports or listening to music, Rocco would always be out chasing the women or driving or working on his car. Those were his passions. Now, don’t get me wrong, I would have been perfectly happy with dating or driving a car, if I could afford either, during my teenage and twenty-something years, but Rocco made it happen, on both accounts. He did settle down with his wife Maria and married in City Hall, but he went through cars like I would go through sneakers. At one point, he owned 10 different cars, over a seven year period. He did drop out of high school in 10th grade, but he pretty much knew exactly what he wanted to do for a career. He wanted to be a tow-truck driver. He always loved cars and saw this as an opportunity to make a good living, despite the stress of driving in New York City. It is what he has done since the age of 17 and I must say that career-wise, he has done the best of the three of us. He has my father’s work ethic and I have to say that I’m proud of him, though I was always closer to Joe than him.

Chapter One(My Early Childhood)

2011-10-22T07:39:00.001-07:00

You, my loyal blog readers, will get a sneak peek at the first draft of that book, that I keep attempting to write. Maybe having the responsibility of giving you guys something to read will motivate me to actually finish it. Here's the first chapter. Enjoy!!!

I was born on a Sunday morning in the summer of 1969. It was an interesting time in America, and the world. We had an unjust war going on in Vietnam and Richard Nixon was our President. We were two weeks away from sending three astronauts to walk on the moon, for the first time. Woodstock was a month away from occurring in upstate New York and the New York Mets, for the first time, were actually a contender. John Lindsay was the major of a big apple in decline. The city was in debt as many of the middle class were moving out to the suburbs in droves.
My family was among those you would consider middle class. My father, Rocco, was a supermarket manager. He managed a Key Food, at the time, and did well enough that my mother, Mary, could stay home, and take care of my older brothers, Joe and Rocco Jr. One event that may have made this story different was that my father felt a lot of pressure, raising a young family and having a lot of job-related stress. It may have contributed to him having a heart attack, at the age of 32, in 1968. Luckily, he survived or I would not have been born.
They lived in Alphabet City, on East 11th Street between Avenues B and C, which was quickly going downhill as a neighborhood, at the time. Because of that, and it being a 5th floor, walk-up which was not the healthiest thing for my father, at the time, and the plan to have a third child, which would mean the need for another bedroom, they decided to move into a bigger apartment, preferably a few blocks west, into a safer part of the East Village. They found one on Avenue A, between 6th and 7th Street. A building with an elevator, but it would be slightly more expensive, $100 a month, up from $85(Those were the days.) It would be the only place I would live for the first 22 years of my life.
My early childhood days were relatively normal, by most standards. I was a healthy baby and toddler, except for cases of measles and chicken pox, at the ages of two and three, respectively. I was known for being a fairly quiet little child. My mother claims that I cried less than my brothers did, at the same age, and my interest in television started very early, which may have pacified me quite a bit. The show Sesame Street began in 1969 and I do remember being glued to that show, along with The Electric Company and Mr. Roger’s Neighborhood. I didn’t miss many episodes in those pre-school days. That surely played a big role in my early interest in wanting to learn, along with having a school teacher for a baby-sitter.
Her name was Nelda, and she lived across the hall from me. She was just starting to teach at a public school on the Lower East Side and there were times when my parents weren’t home, and they didn’t really want to lug a young child around, plus they saw right away that I enjoyed staying with Nelda, because I quickly developed a strong interest in Math and other subjects and she made it so much fun to want to learn about numbers. I was able to add and subtract by the age of 4. Another trick I learned was to be able to say the alphabet backwards very quickly, usually under five seconds. (You try it). I don’t know if that would be considered advanced, but it did convince the principal at the school I would be attending, St. Stanislaus on St. Mark’s Place, that I wouldn’t need to attend kindergarten. She told my parents to just wait another year, until I was six, to start first grade.
My brothers were both already attending St. Stan’s, though it was mainly a parish for those of Polish ancestry. They started allowing others to attend, because of the tough fiscal situation in the city, combined with many middle class families moving out of the neighborhood and the city. It was only two blocks away from home, which was convenient for my mother to walk us and pick us up from there. It was a Catholic school with the church around the block from the school. The families that remained became a fairly tight-knit bunch of neighbors, though some would move as the years went on. My mother made friends with a bunch of other mothers who sent their children to the school. They would usually meet at Leshko’s or Odessa for coffee. They were two Polish/Ukrainian diners on Avenue A that both served great pierogies. The guilty pleasure of my youth was the chocolate egg cream, and both places made them very well, along with Ray’s Candy Store on that block, but I’ll get into Ray’s later on, as that was my first job.
Another thing that I distinctly remember is how much I loved music, as a very young child. If I wasn’t mesmerized by the TV programs I was watching, I would spend a lot of my time listening either to the radio, or to the records, or 8-track tapes, that the other members of my family had. My father was a big Frank Sinatra fan, or other Italian-American performers, like Tony Bennett, Jerry Vale, Jimmy Roselli or Perry Como. Also groups like the Four Seasons and Jay & The Americans. My mother, on the other hand, loved Elvis Presley. She had many of his albums. She also liked what you would consider adult contemporary. There was Dionne Warwick, The Lettermen, Tom Jones, Engelbert Humperdinck, Sonny & Cher, the Carpenters and later on, Helen Reddy and Barry Manilow records in her collection. My oldest brother, Joe was more into rock n roll, like CCR, the Beatles, the Guess Who, and Led Zeppelin, but also soft rock, like Three Dog Night, Elton John, The Brooklyn Bridge, Billy Joel and Steely Dan. Rocco’s taste was a little unusual. He loved disco, but he was also in the Kiss Army. I can’t really explain that. The point is that each family member had an influence on my musical taste, though I will say that I was more of a top 40 fan than anything else. There were certain songs that were popular when I was 4-5 years old that always stuck in my mind like; “Brother Louie” by the Stories and “Dancing In The Moonlight” by King Harvest. Also “Come and Get Your Love” by Redbone and “Rock the Boat” by the Hues Corporation. These songs have always made me smile, when I hear them because, they remind me of happy things in my childhood. As you’ll read, my childhood was not always happy.

One of the 17%

2011-10-18T05:10:00.000-07:00

Obviously, the Wall Street Occupation and its branches throughout the country, and some parts of the world, has become big enough, that the mainstream media can't ignore it completely. Though the emphasis seems to be on the number of arrests and the moments when the police are knocking people around, in an subtle attempt to dissuade more people from joining the movement. The obvious message is that the top 1% of all the people have 95% of the wealth and the other 99% have to be against the top 1%, but the percentage that matters to me, in my own life is 17%. That's the number of people who are either unemployed or underemployed.
I consider myself to be underemployed, accepting a job that doesn't pay as much as I'm used to. Yes, I'm a college dropout and have been lazy most of my life, but I consider myself to be smart enough to do many well-paying jobs. I would just need a little bit of training. The problem is that so many people are looking for a better position and the people that hire have so many qualified candidates to choose from, that someone like me, who doesn't have experience in that exact job, will be passed over for someone who has experience in that position or someone who is younger. I truly believe that age discrimination does exist, even against me. It's hard to compete against a room full of youngsters who are not set in their ways, which means I either have to be lucky to find a great job or I need to finally get my degree to be qualified enough. That's my dilemma. I don't want to just be a statistic, one of the 17%.