Billie Holiday Research Paper

Every time Johnny Cash would step out in front of a crowd he would greet his millions of followers with the same line: “Hello, I’m Johnny Cash”. He would be greeted with roars, hollers, and cheers whenever he was seen. Cash influenced a generation and blended music genres to bring the country together. Known as The Man in Black, for it was the only color he would wear after 1957 (Streissguth 80). Cash through his more than 50 year career had thirteen number 1 hits (Macnie). Johnny Cash evolved country music and became a quintessential American hero, admired and adored by millions.

Not everyone is blessed with musical talent but when someone has an extraordinary ability, he or she should get the chance to please others with it. Sometimes a career can be made out of musical endowment, and that is what Billie Holiday did. Billie had a life that she may not have dreamed of since it started out rough with her mistreatment from adults and discouraging misfortunes, but she was ambitious and that showed through her singing career. Billie could usually adapt to her life’s problems except for her drug addiction and alcohol abuse, which unfortunately led to her demise. She was a talented woman who sang and helped create hit songs that aided her to rise to fame. Billie Holiday bravely stood up to racism, showed the world her talent, and inspired many of her beloved fans, all while continuing to be herself and not allowing the issues in her life hold her back.

“Other kids could play cowboys and Indians and imagine that they’d grow up to be cowboys,” he wrote in his Living Proof autobiography. “I couldn’t do that. I knew that I would never grow up to be a cowboy or a fireman or the president of the United States. I knew I’d grow up to be a singer. That’s all there ever was, the only option, from the beginning.” http://www.hankjr.com/career-biography/

Butch Cassidy and his members of the Wild Bunch left a remarkable chapter in the history of old American West. Interestingly, Butch was no mean robber, but someone full of charm. The story of the group was made more interesting with the addition of Butch’s constant partner-in-crime, Sundance Kid.

Born Eleanora Fagan on April 7, 1915, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, it is reported that her birth certificate actually reads “Elinore Harris.” Sarah Juliea “Sadie” Fagan was the loving mother and Clarence Holiday the presumed but often not present father. The only stability found in Holiday’s life was when her mother, Sadie, married Philip Gough for a few years, sadly they later divorced. Growing up, Holiday spent the majority of her childhood in Baltimore, Maryland. She was a music enthusiast from the beginning, enjoying Bessi Smith and Louis Armstrong.

In the summer of 1969, a music festival known as “Woodstock” took place for three straight days in Upstate, New York with thirty-two musical acts playing, and over 400,000 people from around the world coming to join this musical and peaceful movement. Woodstock started out being a small concert, created to promote peace in the world. Now, Woodstock is still being celebrated over 40 years later. This three day music festival represented the perfect concert for the “baby boomers” during a messy political time. Woodstock significantly impacted the counterculture era of the 1960’s in a number of ways; how it began, the ideas of the concert, the sense of union and love it represented and it

Carole King was originally named Carole Klein when she was born in New York City on February 9, 1942 [1]. An accomplished pianist by age 10, Carole began songwriting in her early teens [1]. Shortly after, she helped form a quartet called the Co-Sines and created her stage name, Carole King [1]. While attending Queens College, King met Gerry Goffin, her first husband [1]. Shortly after King and Goffin’s marriage, they

Singer. Born April 25, 1917, in Newport News, Virginia. (Though many biographical sources give her birth date as 1918, her birth certificate and school records show her to have been born a year earlier.) Often referred to as the "first lady of song," Fitzgerald enjoyed a career that stretched over six decades. With her lucid intonation and a range of three octaves, she became the preeminent jazz singer of her generation, recording over 2,000 songs, selling over 40 million albums, and winning 13 Grammy Awards, including one in 1967 for Lifetime Achievement.

According to the book “Fannie Lou Hamer” by Sandy Donovan, Fannie Lou Townsend was the last of twenty children to Jim and Lou Townsend. She was born on October 6, 1917. Her family lived in a tiny shack in the country in Mississippi. She had fourteen older brothers and five older sisters. Fannie Lou grandparents had been slaves.

Every memory of the summer of 1969 is connected to, in one way or another, the historical event, Woodstock. The festival could not have left more of an impact on the “hippie” generation anymore than it did those three days of music and peace. The generation of the time wanted nothing more than what they got out of Woodstock. Today, people still look back on the festival and think of how well it made history without the expectance of doing so. Woodstock, one of the most important cultural events of the 20th century, combined iconic musical acts with interesting social behavior.

Butch Cassidy: Wanted Dead or Alive Butch Cassidy was no man with a clean slate. He was an infamous outlaw of the Old West, taking all he could from trains and banks. He worked with many people throughout his lifetime who helped him with his misdeeds. He was born in Beaver, Utah on April 13th, 1866.

Billie Jean King, the first female athlete to admit her homosexuality, was born on November 22, 1943 in the city of Long Beach, California. Both Billie and her brother Randy excelled in athletics as kids. Billie played softball at the age of 10, but that eventually ended because her parents insisted that she play a more “ladylike” sport. She developed an interest in tennis and began to play and practice at the Long Beach public courts. King started receiving coaching from Alice Marble and won her very first tournament at the age of 14, soon finding herself enmeshed in a country club sport.

“The US Open was the first major Grand Slam to offer equal pay for men and women in 1973, after women’s champion Billie Jean King threatened to organize a boycott of the tournament” (Shuster). Billie Jean King has been an advocate for equality from a young age due, in part, to the fact that growing up she was discriminated against at tennis clubs because her parents did not have a great deal of money. Even though many people at the clubs disliked King, she excelled, started to play in major tournaments and quickly earned her place in women’s professional tennis. King’s most famous match was titled the “Battle of the Sexes” because she played the outspoken male chauvinist, Bobby Riggs. When King beat Riggs, she created a defining moment in

Woody Guthrie was born in Okemah, Oklahoma in 1917. His father, a cowboy, taught him songs of the Indians, folk tunes of the Scottish, and western songs. In his early childhood Woody Guthrie had a tragic turn around in his childhood. He had lost his sister Clara to an unfortunate accident. That set-in the motion of institutionalization of his mother, leading to the loss of his mother.

Being a touring singing and performer can become a very rough and tiring job. Being on the road traveling for many months, playing different shows every night would make you really realize if singing is what you love to do. Ella was a singer for more than 60 years. Ella Fitzgerald goes down in history as one of the greatest female singers proven by the many awards and respect she received.