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Finally, for the Great American Songbook Series:   Dean Martin Dino Paul Crocetti (1917 – 1995) - nicknamed the "King of Cool". He was one of the members of the "Rat Pack" and a major star on concert stage, recordings, movies and television. As a singer Martin could not read music (like Frank Sinatra!), but recorded about 100 albums with 600 songs.  His " Everybody Loves Somebody ", beated The Beatles ' " A Hard Day's Night " at of the No. 1 spot in the US (1964). I hope you all liked this little excursion in musical history. That's it for The Great Amercian Songbook for now.

In the recent years there were a couple of artists that were inspired by The Great Amercian Songbook : Robbie Williams Mr. Williams was famous for his part in Take That and the following solo career. In 2001 he released a very different record. With " Swing When You're Winning " he paid tribute to the Great American Songbook . The album was recorded at the Capitol Studios in Los Angeles and was released under the Capitol label. The album was certified as 7 times Platinum in the UK. Sadly there was no follow up. It's a beautiful record - if you like it, watch out for the Live At The Albert Hall DVD, too. Harry Connick Jr. Joseph Harry Fowler Connick, Jr. has sold more than 25 million records. This year he released a great live performance ( In Concert On Broadway ): Michael Bublé Michael Steven Bublé is a Canadian singer. If you don't know him, listen here: Tom Gaebel Tom Gaebel is a surprisingly go...

Jay Clifford , also known from his band Jump Little Children started a crowd funding campaign for his new album. Within about 24h he reached 90% of his goal. What's different to other crowd funding events? It's also for a good cause! Jay: " (...) a portion of the proceeds will go to a charity close to my heart, The Children’s Center in my hometown of Winston-Salem, North Carolina. The good people at this unique special needs school made a real difference in the life of my nephew Errol Milner Clifford. You can read more about his story at errolclifford.com ." If you want to take part, it's on pledgemusic.com . I also recommend to listen to his first solo album Driving Blind at myspace .

One of Frank Sinatra 's (Francis Albert Sinatra, 1915 – 1998) first musical performances was in 1935: he had a job as singing waiter in New Jersey (he was paid $15 a week). He became a successful in the early 1940s. Sinatra had several albums with Capitol Records ( In the Wee Small Hours in 1955, Songs for Swingin' Lovers in 1956, Come Fly with Me in 1957) until he found his own record label, Reprise Records ( September Of My Years in 1965). He also was a founding member of the Rat Pack . Sinatra retired for the first time in 1971. In 1973 he already had a comeback and recorded several albums, including the hit " (Theme From) New York, New York " and Trilogy: Past Present Future in 1980. In February 1995 Sinatra sang before a live audience for the very last time. His last song was " The Best is Yet to Come ".  

Fred Astaire (born Frederick Austerlitz ; May 10, 1899 – June 22, 1987) was an American film and Broadway stage dancer, choreographer, singer and actor. His stage and following film career spanned a total of 76 years,  and made 31 musical films in this time. Fred Astaire Astaire arrived New York City at age 24 in 1892. When his father suddenly lost his job, the family launch the show business career of their children. As a result of their father's salesmanship, Fred and his sister got a major contract very fast. Fred Astaire first met George Gershwin in 1916. Fred had already been hunting for new music and dance ideas - their meeting deeply affected the careers of both men. During the 1920s, Fred and his sister Adele appeared on Broadway and on the London stage in shows such as George and Ira Gershwin's Lady Be Good (1924) and Funny Face (1927), and The Band Wagon (1931), having popular acclaim in theaters on both sides of the Atlantic. Astaire received a per...

Time for a change - let's do some musical history: In the 1920 to the 1960 many songs with enduring popularity were written by US songwriters and performed by several singers. The songs had their roots in theatre and Hollywood musicals. Years later this was defined as The Great American Songbook . The Songbook era ended about the time rock & roll arose. I wonder if there'll be sometimes also another - i.e. better - definition about the songs that are called PowerPop today. Writers There is a long list of writers and lyricists - following you'll find some of the most important artists and their songs: Harold Arlen Over the Rainbow, Stormy Weather, I've Got the World on a String, Let's Fall in Love, That Old Black Magic, One for My Baby Irving Berlin How Deep Is the Ocean, White Christmas, Cheek to Cheek, Puttin' on the Ritz, Let's Face the Music and Dance, There's No Business Like Show Business Irving Berlin Nacio Herb Brown Singin...

Some months ago there was a crowd funding campaign by the website kickstarter.com from Bleu . I decided to give some money for this great project - with the benefit of getting a birthday song for my then new born daughter. By the time of her birth there was a song and video surrounding us in these exciting days: A song by Eduard Khil. You don't know him? He is now 75. And has become a star - 30 years after his actual performance. The Russian sang a song without words (because of the soviet censorship). Until today the video has been watched for more than 8 million times. There exist several remixes, an iPhone-App and much more. Here is the original song: So... and here is the b-day song from Bleu for Mara: Bleu - Happy Birthday Mara by Bleutopia Mara and her parents liked it a lot (she likes to dance to it :-) I created a little collection of songs around this tune (it's a kind of mix tape or personal best of): Mara LP: 01 Ya Catch More Flie...

The new EP of Ocean Grove can now be preordered on their website. It will be available on June 21st. And if you preorder (it includes CD and digital download), you'll get an unique personalized photo of the band taken anywhere across America. I like this. If you still have not done this, I recommend to order also their first EP ("Little Record").

My first contact with the music of Aimee Mann was the movie Magnolia in 1999. It was an outstanding film - with outstanding music. The score was created by Jon Brion , the songs were mostly from Aimee Mann . The soundtrack was nominated for an Oscar, a Golden Globe and 3 Grammys. I was completely flashed by these tunes. While Jon Brion released his superb first (and I still hope not his last) record "Meaningless" about one year later and sadly stopped making records, Aimee Mann continued her successful solo career. The following records sustained at this high standard: Bachelor No. 2 (Deathly, Red Vines, Save Me) in 2000, Lost in Space (This Is How It Goes, Humpty Dumpty, Lost In Space - the record has a wonderful 2CD special edition) in 2002, The Forgotten Arm (Going Through The Motions, That's how i knew this story would break my heart) in 2005 and @#%;*! Smilers (Freeway, 31 Today) in 2008. There's one thing I still regret: in 2005 (maybe a year be...

Here is Distant Lights - the new song from Ivy . Well, that tune was worth the wait (for six long years):

The next few weeks will have a bunch of exciting record releases: The Nines - Polarities (unreleased songs and demos - out now!) - Homepage Gomez - Whatever's On Your Mind (out now!) - Homepage Ivy - Distant Lights (Single, out now!) - Listen To Distant Lights Here Ivy - All Hours (September 20) - Homepage Fountains of Wayne - Sky Full Of Holes (August 2) - Listen To The New Single Here Hotel Lights - Girl Graffiti (August 16) - Homepage - Download The New Single Here Ben Folds Five - Box Set (probably 3 CDs: Best Of, Live and Rare - Ben even talked about a fourth Ben Folds Five record that was never finished! - November) Bleu - Besides (B-Sides, on vinyl and digital - tba) - Homepage Mike Viola - Electro De Perfecto (summer) - Homepage The Shins - New Album (tba) - Homepage Brandon Schott - ‎13 Songs (a collaboration with Billy Hawn) (summer) - Homepage David Mead - Dudes (tba) - David's Blog So, lots of new stuff! Being exited :-)