Selling The Dream

Frankie Miller’s eighth solo album “Standing On The Edge” was his first away from the Chrysalis label and was also at that point his rockiest and most polished effort. The bar room backing or stripped back blues and soul of the earlier albums being replaced with a polished, sleek and far more rocky production. Musically and arrangement wise this was more akin to Bad Company, Foreigner or even Whitesnake than the old blues and soul feel of its predecessors…

Van Halen formed in 1974, but emerged in public view with the 1978 release of their self-titled debut album, which quickly established them as the hottest American hard-rock band since Aerosmith. The band reinvigorated hard rock during a period of doldrums by bringing youthful, West Coast bravado and blistering virtuosity to the genre. They delivered their music with an unrelenting intensity and musicality that audiences devoured, launching them to superstardom and restoring hard rock to the forefront of the music scene. After 30 years and 11 studio releases —four of which reached Number One—, Van Halen has sold more than 56 million records in the U.S., which places them among the top 20 best-selling artists of all time…

Benny Goodman was the first celebrated bandleader of the Swing Era, dubbed "The King of Swing," his popular emergence marking the beginning of the era. He was an accomplished clarinetist whose distinctive playing gave an identity both to his big band and to the smaller units he led simultaneously. The most popular figure of the first few years of the Swing Era, he continued to perform until his death 50 years later. Goodman was the son of Russian immigrants David Goodman, a tailor, and Dora Rezinsky Goodman. He first began taking clarinet lessons at ten at a synagogue, after which he joined the band at Hull House, a settlement home.