Monday, April 30, 2012

On The Radio...



The Galaxy continues to look at the career of Bryan Ferry, who will be performing his first ever concert in Iceland late next month.



Roxy Music reunited during 1978 to record a new album, Manifesto. Following an almost four-year recording hiatus, Manifesto was Roxy Music's first album since 1975's Siren.

The album peaked at #7 in the UK. The cover design which featured a variety of mannequins (a concept also used for the covers of the singles from the album), was created by Bryan with fashion designer Antony Price.





The first single from the album was "Trash", which barely made the UK top 40 (it charted at #40).





However, the second single, "Dance Away", returned the band to the top 3, beaten to no.1 for two weeks from 26 May 1979 by Blondie's "Sunday Girl". It became one of the band's biggest hits and was also the 9th best-selling single in the UK in 1979. The song was originally written for Bryan's 1977 solo album In Your Mind but did not make the final track listing. It was then planned for inclusion on his 1978 album The Bride Stripped Bare, but again was not included.




The third single from the album was a re-recorded version of "Angel Eyes", which was far more electronic and "disco" in nature than the power-pop album version. It peaked at #4 in the UK, helped along with the first proper music video the band had made.




The next album was Flesh+Blood,  released in June 1980. The album reached #1 in the UK for one week in June and then returned to the summit in August for another three weeks; in total spending 60 weeks on the UK album chart. The album reached #35 in the US and #10 in Australia. However (as it so often is), despite the commercial success of the album a lot of critics disliked the album.


The album was preceded by the single "Over You", a #5 UK hit that also provided the band with a rare US chart entry at #80.




The next single was the classic "Oh Yeah (On The Radio)", which also charted at #5 in the UK. Speaking about the song, Bryan told the Mail On Sunday: “In this song I was trying to create a picture of Americana, and long hot summer evenings at drive-in movies. It is wistful and nostalgic, rather like a country record.”




The third single was "Same Old Scene" (UK #12, AUS #35).




And the final single from the album (although only released in a few markets) was "In The Midnight Hour".




In 1981, Roxy Music recorded the non-album single "Jealous Guy". A cover of a song written and originally recorded by John Lennon, Roxy Music decided to record the track as a tribute to Lennon after his 1980 death. The single  topped the UK charts for two weeks in March 1981, becoming the band's only #1 single.



In 1982, with more sombre and carefully sculpted soundscapes, the band's eighth—and final—studio album, Avalon, was a major commercial success and restored the group's critical reputation.
The album went to #1 in the UK, where it stayed for three weeks. It only made it to #53 in the US, but it did become the bands only platinum record in the states. The cover features a photo of Bryan's girlfriend (soon to be wife) Lucy Helmore. She is waering a helmet and carrying a falcon, evoking King Arthur's last journey to the mysterious land of Avalon.


The first single from the album was "More Than This", which peaked at #6 in the UK. In the US it only made it to #103, although it would become one of their best know songs there.




The second single was the beautiful title track, which peaked at#13 in the UK.





The song is currently featured in the latest H&M campaign.







The final single (released only in a few markets) was "Take A Chance With Me".


After a tour to promote the album, Bryan Ferry dissolved the band in 1983  and band members devoted themselves full time to solo careers - including Ferry, who was about to have a very successful solo hits...

Part 3 coming soon.

Tracks...



Once again, time for some tracks. This lot includes the excellent live version of "Cherry Bomb" by Kylie Minogue, the return of the fantastic Studio Killers, a couple of drag queens, a fabulous mix of the latest Madonna single, Paulina Rubio going a bit mental (again) - you know, the ususal...



















A Diamond...



Duran Duran are releasing a DVD of their latest tour.

Filmed at the MEN Arena in Manchester on 16 December 2011, this stunning Duran Duran live show is the perfect combination of great music, amazing visuals and iconic style which has been the band’s trademark throughout their career. Following the release of their acclaimed “All You Need Is Now” album, this concert combines new songs from that release with their classic hits. Whether in the studio or the live arena, Duran Duran are masters of their craft and this latest concert bursts with energy and oozes class in the way that only they can.




The Deluxe version contains the following:

*             Live CD

*             Blu-ray

*             DVD

*             Booklet

*             Bonus Features

DVD:

1. Return To Now
2. Before The Rain
3. Planet Earth
4. View To A Kill
5. All You Need Is Now
6. Blame The Machines
7. Safe (In The Heat Of The Moment)
8. The Reflex
9. The Man Who Stole A Leopard
10. Girl Panic!
11. White Lines
12. Careless Memories
13. Ordinary World
14. Notorious
15. Hungry Like The Wolf
16. (Reach Up For The) Sunrise
17. Wild Boys / Relax
18. Rio
19. A Diamond In The Mind
(Credits)

Bonus Features:

Duran Duran 2011 – interviews & behind the scenes.
Bonus tracks: (1) Come Undone (2) Is There Something I Should Know

DVD Format: NTSC Region 0
Screen Format: 16:9
Sound Formats: DTS Surround Sound, Dolby Digital 5.1, Dolby Digital Stereo
Running Time: 119 mins approx
Subtitles: (Bonus Feature Only) English, French, German, Spanish, Italia

Filmed in high definition and simultaneously released on Blu-ray, CD and a Deluxe Edition.

CD:

1. Before The Rain
2. Planet Earth
3. A View To A Kill
4. All You Need Is Now
5. Come Undone
6. Blame The Machines
7. The Reflex
8. Girl Panic !
9. Ordinary World
10. Notorious
11. Hungry Like The Wolf
12. (Reach Up For The) Sunrise
13. Wild Boys
14. Rio

Line-up:
Simon Le Bon (vocals), John Taylor (bass), Roger Taylor (drums), Nick Rhodes (keyboards)
With: Dom Brown (guitars), Anna Ross (backing vocals), Simon Willescroft (saxophone) and Dawne Adams (percussion)

TENTATIVE release date: July, 2012

Friday, April 27, 2012

Stage & Maxi...



The first detailed sketch of the stage for the upcoming Madonna tour has been published in a newspaper from Chile. Looks awesome!



The highly anticipated opening of Madonna's MDNA Tour is now planned for Thursday, May 31st at Ramat Gan Stadium in Tel Aviv, two days later than previously scheduled due to production delays. All tickets dated May 29th will be honored at the rescheduled May 31st event.

The Material Girl has already announced 76 concert dates in arenas, stadiums and special outdoor sites throughout Europe and North America with confirmed sales of over 1.4 million tickets to date. The MDNA tour has already sold out in Berlin (2 shows sold out), Amsterdam, Barcelona, and Istanbul (45,000 tickets sold) as well as Philadelphia, Boston, Montreal, Quebec City (70,000 tickets), New York's Yankee Stadium (73,000 tickets over 2 shows), Washington DC and the Staples Center in LA.

The tour has recently announced additional concert dates in Mexico and South America, which will be followed by a visit to Australia, where Madonna has not performed in 20 years.

Along with state of the art technical components, including the largest video screens ever created, Madonna, her band and her dancers are expected to reach above and beyond her Super Bowl performance where she performed to an audience of over 117 million people around the world, the highest number of viewers in Super Bowl history.

Madonna's latest studio recording 'MDNA' debuted on iTunes at the #1 spot in over 40 countries. Her newest single 'Girl Gone Wild' is #1 on Billboard's Dance Club Songs Chart - her 42nd time in the top slot. She remains the artist with the most #1 songs in the chart's 35-year history. MDNA has received glowing reviews including USA Today which commented, 'Madonna's MDNA is rocking and revelatory...her most personal effort to date.'

'The woman is pop's most durable alpha female, coolly courting fascination and controversy on her own terms.' Added The Sun in the UK, 'The album should be the spine of an incredible live show – just what her army of followers will want to hear.'

The MDNA Tour is produced by Live Nation Global Touring and presented locally in association with Shuki Weiss.



Also, there will be a maxi CD release on May 21st for "Girl Gone Wild"! No tracklist yet, but it will feature several remixes. Hopefully Interscope will continue with this - I think it is quite obvious that Madonna fans in general have very little interest in buying downloads!

Tuesday, April 24, 2012

SOTD...



After my previous post about Newton's "Sky High", I thought I would feature another mid 90s song that I still love.

"Not Over Yet" by Grace was released as a single in 1995, peaking #6 in the UK  and topping the US dance charts. It was re-released in 1999, peaking at #16 in the UK.

The track was covered in 2007 by UK group Klaxons. Their version got to #13 on the UK singles chart.





3 From 1...



Former Savage Garden singer Darren Hays is a massive Madonna fan (as the whole world should be). Here are three of his Madonna covers.

The Time Is Near...

Eurovision Song Contest - Baku 2012

The 2012 Eurovision album will be released on May 7th. I have been so busy with school that I havent had any time yet to check out the songs this year - must set aside some time for that!

The only ones I have heard are the ones from Norway (good), Iceland (dreadful) and Sweden (which I suspect might end up winning this year!).

The Supremes At The Copa...



Here is the full tracklist and info on the upcoming expanded edition of At The Copa by The Supremes!



The Supremes At The Copa: Expanded Edition 

SITE PRE-SALE DATE: 4/27/2012

SITE SHIP DATE: 5/11/2012

            In July 1965, the Supremes, one of Motown Records’ top groups, made history when they performed for three weeks at New York’s famed Copacabana nightclub; At The Copa, the recording of this landmark event – a “teen pop” group appearing at the mountaintop of showbiz success – was released by the company four months later. Now, for the first time, Motown/Select.com issues the complete concert in a stunning 2-CD Expanded Edition.

            Disc One of At The Copa: Expanded Edition contains the digitally remastered original stereo album – an album that, owing to then-insurmountable technical problems, used lead vocals overdubbed by Diana Ross in the studio. Also on Disc One are 10 specially selected, previously unreleased original mono reference mixes, with Ms. Ross’s original live vocals. Listeners will be able to hear the magic of both versions.

            Disc Two features the full Copa show, as only the audience would have experienced it in 1965, in a brand-new mix that compiles the best performances from six recorded shows. Today’s technology allowed the producers to overcome issues that vexed their 1960s counterparts, resulting not only in the use of the original lead vocals but the inclusion of songs cut from the original release: the opening number “From This Moment On,” their hits “Where Did Our Love Go” and “Nothing But Heartaches,” and classic show tunes including “Tonight/The Way You Look Tonight,” and “Enjoy Yourself (It’s Later Than You Think).”

            The music for At The Copa: Expanded Edition is housed in a gorgeous digi-pak that contains a booklet featuring never-before-seen photos of the girls performing on stage; the original LP liner notes by Sammy Davis, Jr.; an all-new essay by producer George Solomon detailing how a young Motown Records and their rising group got the Copa dates, encompassing the story of the girls’ crossover appeal and the intense planning that went into a monumental moment in pop music and American cultural history.


Disc 1, Tracks 1-15: Original Stereo LP

Disc 1, Tracks 16-25: Alternate Mono Mixes/Previously Unreleased

Disc 2: The Complete Show/Previously Unreleased


*Sam Cooke Medley: You Send Me / (I Love You) For Sentimental Reasons / Cupid / Chain Gang / Bring It On Home To Me / Shake




Disc One
1. Opening Introduction
2. Put On A Happy Face
3. I Am Woman
4. Baby Love
5. Stop! In The Name Of Love
6. Boy From Ipanema
7. Make Someone Happy / Time After Time
8. Come See About Me
9. Rock-A-Bye Your Baby With A Dixie Melody
10. Queen Of The House
11. Group Introduction
12. Somewhere
13. Back In My Arms Again
14. Sam Cooke Medley*
15. You’re Nobody ‘Til Somebody Loves You
16. Put On A Happy Face
17. Stop! In The Name Of Love
18. The Boy From Ipanema
19. Come See About Me
20. Enjoy Yourself (It’s Later Than You Think)
21. Rock-A-Bye Your Baby With A Dixie Melody
22. Where Did Our Love Go
23. Nothing But Heartaches
24. Back In My Arms Again
25. Sam Cooke Medley*

Disc Two

1. Opening Introduction
2. From This Moment On
3. Put On A Happy Face
4. Tonight/The Way You Look Tonight
5. Baby Love
6. Stop! In The Name Of Love
7. The Boy From Ipanema
8. Where Did Our Love Go
9. I Am Woman
10. Band Introduction
11. Make Someone Happy / Time After Time
12. Come See About Me
13. Rock-A-Bye Your Baby With A Dixie Melody
14. Queen Of The House
15. Group Introduction
16. Somewhere
17. Nothing But Heartaches
18. Enjoy Yourself (It’s Later Than You Think)
19. Back In My Arms Again
20. Sam Cooke Medley*
21. You’re Nobody ‘Til Somebody Loves You

Monday, April 23, 2012

As If We Didnt Know Already....




 

 And a little more Madonna - here is a short, very rare interview with the queen from way back when...

 


There is a rumor going around Madonna is set to open the Billboard Awards with a performance of Girl Gone Wild and that she will receive a special award for her unprecedented record of 42 number one singles on the dance club play charts! However, this has NOT been confirmed!!!

Rare 1989 Malibu Photographed by Herb Ritts

Singing Telegrams...




A couple of singing telegrams for 'ya

 (BTW: I HATE the new Blogger - why on earth do people always feel the need to change things every other month, just for the hell of it. It rarely makes things any better, just worse!)

BTM#8...



A wonderful episode about the Divine Miss M: Bette Midler

Friday, April 20, 2012

The UK Interview...



The brand new UK Madonna interview!





Ongoing chatter that the Madonna tour, and by extension her multi-rights deal with Live Nation, are underperforming is “baseless,” according to sales figures provided by tour producer Arthur Fogel, chairman of Live Nation Global Touring.

The precipitous drop of MDNA in its second week, while certainly not something an artist would want (though the nature of the beast when pricing strategies are geared toward impressive first-week sales), actually has little to do with the performance of Live Nation’s 10-year, $120 million multi-rights deal with Madonna. The days of tours supporting records are long gone; for some time now, touring drives record sales, not the reverse, and the Madonna touring business is more than solid.

As for the multi-rights deal, while MDNA is the first album under the 360, the upcoming trek is not the first tour. That would be “Sticky and Sweet” of 2008-2009, which grossed $408 million, according to Billboard Boxscore, the third-highest gross all-time and the highest ever notched by a solo artist. Merchandising is also a component of this tour and in Madonna’s case is a significant revenue producer. Finally, given that the entire 360 deal is, at its core, performance-based and assuredly tour-driven in its concept, Madonna is delivering.

According to Fogel — the guy who would know — these are the facts:

76 Madonna shows at arenas and stadiums are on sale in North America and Europe combined.
More than 1.4 million tickets have been sold, banking about $214 million for an average in the $2.7 million per show in a mix of stadiums and arenas.
And the tour doesn’t even begin until May 29 in Tel Aviv, first hitting America in Philadelphia Aug. 28.

Fogel tells Billboard.biz

“This tour is completely on track to end up in the top 10 tours of all time, especially considering we haven’t put South America or Australia on sale.

To say this tour is not performing is so off base I don’t even know what to say.

When this tour is said and done, combined with ‘Sticky and Sweet,’ you’re talking $750 million in gross ticket sales.That sounds pretty impressive to me.

One of the things some people don’t get is, I don’t necessarily want to be sold out at this point;
I keep trying to find tickets to sell. Every day our people are trying to fine-tune the site lines and production kills. That’s my job. It’s great when you can say ‘sold out,’ but right now I want to keep finding tickets to sell. That’s the game.”

European dates, which are mostly in stadiums, have come under particular scrutiny. Fogel says the $214 million gross banked so far is spread “pretty evenly” between North America and Europe, and there are 43 shows on sale in North America versus 33 in Europe.

“You can do the math. We sold 46,000 in Istanbul, 44,000 in Milan, 39,000 in Florence, 42,000 in Edinburgh, 40,000 in Helsinki, 51,000 in Paris.
We sold out two arenas in Barcelona, two in Berlin, two in Amsterdam.
If that’s trouble, give me more.”

Fogel concedes Europe didn’t blow up the way North America did, but cites buying patterns for stadium general admission tickets in Europe, and the huge promotional boost of the Super Bowl performance in America as key factors in that disparity.

He concludes…

“She’s at the top of her game and she ain’t goin’ away,”

Time Bomb!...

Kylie Minogue, video shoot, soho, london

Kylie Minogue drew crowds in London yesterday while being filmed on a busy street.

The singer was spotted strutting down Old Compton Street in Soho while miming a song and surrounded by fans taking photos of her.


Minogue was dressed in short denim hot pants, a leather biker jacket adorned with a giant red heart, and a pair of big sunglasses.

The man with the umbrella tries, but fails to copy Kylie's cool expression

Kylie Minogue puts her hands int he air while riding on the back of a motorbike



Kylie Minogue's rear view on the back of a motorbike

Later in the evening, the Australian starlet was seen on the back of a motorbike.

It has not been confirmed whether she was shooting a new music video. Fan reports however are saying that she was indeed filming the music video for a brand new single called "Time Bomb"!

Kylie will release an orchestral reworking of her greatest hits later this year. The new album will be part of her K25 project, which celebrates her 25 years in the music industry since 1987's 'Loco-Motion'.












Action: Kylie and actor get into character and exchange words from their luxury cars

Thursday, April 19, 2012

Interviews...

Madonna interview with Harry Smith for “Rock Center with Brian Williams” [NBC]

A brand new Madonna interview:





And an ad for the upcoming UK  interview:



And here is some official footage from the launch of Truth Or Dare in NY:



MDNA has now topped the charts in 37 countries and tickets for her upcoming tour are 97% sold out!

RIP...



LOS ANGELES — Dick Clark, the ever-youthful television host and tireless entrepreneur who helped bring rock 'n' roll into the mainstream on "American Bandstand" and later produced and hosted a vast range of programming from game shows to the year-end countdown from Times Square on "New Year's Rockin' Eve," has died. He was 82.

Spokesman Paul Shefrin said Clark had a heart attack Wednesday morning at Saint John's Health Center in Santa Monica, where he had gone the day before for an outpatient procedure. Clark had continued performing even after he suffered a stroke in 2004 that affected his ability to speak and walk.

Long dubbed "the world's oldest teenager" because of his boyish appearance, Clark bridged the rebellious new music scene and traditional show business. He was equally comfortable whether chatting about music with Sam Cooke or bantering with Ed McMahon about TV bloopers. He thrived as the founder of Dick Clark Productions, supplying movies, game and music shows, beauty contests and more to TV. Among his credits: "The $25,000 Pyramid," ''TV's Bloopers and Practical Jokes" and the American Music Awards.

For a time in the 1980s, he had shows on all three networks and was listed among the Forbes 400 of wealthiest Americans. Clark also was part of radio as a partner in the United Stations Radio Network, which provided programs — including Clark's — to thousands of stations.
"There's hardly any segment of the population that doesn't see what I do," Clark told The Associated Press in a 1985 interview. "It can be embarrassing. People come up to me and say, 'I love your show,' and I have no idea which one they're talking about."

The original "American Bandstand" was one of network TV's longest-running series as part of ABC's daytime lineup from 1957 to 1987. It later aired for a year in syndication and briefly on the USA Network. Through the years, it introduced stars ranging from Buddy Holly to Madonna. The show's status as an American cultural institution was solidified when Clark donated Bandstand's original podium and backdrop to the Smithsonian Institution.



Clark joined "Bandstand" in 1956 after Bob Horn, who'd been the host since its 1952 debut, was fired. Under Clark's guidance, it went from a local Philadelphia show to a national phenomenon.
"I played records, the kids danced, and America watched," was how Clark once described the series' simplicity. In his 1958 hit "Sweet Little Sixteen," Chuck Berry sang that "they'll be rocking on Bandstand, Philadelphia, P-A."



As a host, he had the smooth delivery of a seasoned radio announcer. As a producer, he had an ear for a hit record. He also knew how to make wary adults welcome this odd new breed of music in their homes.
Clark endured accusations that he was in with the squares, with critic Lester Bangs defining Bandstand as "a leggily acceptable euphemism of the teenage experience."
In a 1985 interview, Clark acknowledged the complaints. "But I knew at the time that if we didn't make the presentation to the older generation palatable, it could kill it.
"So along with Little Richard and Chuck Berry and the Platters and the Crows and the Jayhawks ... the boys wore coats and ties and the girls combed their hair and they all looked like sweet little kids into a high school dance," he said.



But Clark defended pop artists and artistic freedom, the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame said in an online biography of the 1993 inductee. He helped give black artists their due by playing original R&B recordings instead of cover versions by white performers, and he condemned censorship.
His stroke in December 2004 forced him to miss his annual appearance on "Dick Clark's New Year's Rockin' Eve." He returned the following year and, although his speech at times was difficult to understand, many praised his bravery, including other stroke victims.
Still speaking with difficulty, he continued taking part in his New Year's shows, though in a diminished role. Ryan Seacrest became the main host.
"I'm just thankful I'm still able to enjoy this once-a-year treat," he told The Associated Press by email in December 2008 as another New Year's Eve approached.
He was honored at the Emmy Awards in 2006, telling the crowd: "I have accomplished my childhood dream, to be in show business. Everybody should be so lucky to have their dreams come true. I've been truly blessed."



He was born Richard Wagstaff Clark in Mount Vernon, N.Y., in 1929. His father, Richard Augustus Clark, was a sales manager who worked in radio.
Clark idolized his athletic older brother, Bradley, who was killed in World War II. In his 1976 autobiography, "Rock, Roll & Remember," Clark recalled how radio helped ease his loneliness and turned him into a fan of Steve Allen, Arthur Godfrey and other popular hosts.
From Godfrey, he said, he learned that "a radio announcer does not talk to 'those of you out there in radio land'; a radio announcer talks to me as an individual."



Clark began his career in the mailroom of a Utica, N.Y., radio station in 1945. By age 26, he was a broadcasting veteran, with nine years' experience on radio and TV stations in Syracuse and Utica, N.Y., and Philadelphia. He held a bachelor's degree from Syracuse University. While in Philadelphia, Clark befriended McMahon, who later credited Clark for introducing him to his future "Tonight Show" boss, Johnny Carson.





In the 1960s, "American Bandstand" moved from black-and-white to color, from weekday broadcasts to once-a-week Saturday shows and from Philadelphia to Los Angeles. Although its influence started to ebb, it still featured some of the biggest stars of each decade, whether Janis Joplin, the Jackson 5, Talking Heads or Prince. But Clark never did book two of rock's iconic groups, the Beatles and the Rolling Stones. Elvis Presley also never performed, although Clark managed an on-air telephone interview while Presley was in the Army.



One of the most important TV apperances Madonna did at the start of her career was on American Bandstand, when she famously told him that she wantedt to "rule the world". Dick became a big fan of hers, and was in fact the one responsible for her apperance on the 1985 Live Aid concert.









Clark kept more than records spinning with his Dick Clark Productions. Its credits included the Academy of Country Music and Golden Globe awards; TV movies including the Emmy-winning "The Woman Who Willed a Miracle" (1984), the "$25,000 Pyramid" game show and the 1985 film "Remo Williams: The Adventure Begins." Clark himself made a cameo on "The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air" and a dramatic appearance as a witness on the original "Perry Mason." He was an involuntary part of Michael Moore's Academy Award-winning "Bowling for Columbine," in which Clark is seen brushing off Moore as the filmmaker confronts him about working conditions at a restaurant owned by Clark.



In 1974, at ABC's request, Clark created the American Music Awards after the network lost the broadcast rights to the Grammy Awards.

He was also an author, with "Dick Clark's American Bandstand" and such self-help books as "Dick Clark's Program for Success in Your Business and Personal Life" and "Looking Great, Staying Young." His unchanging looks inspired a joke in "Peggy Sue Gets Married," the 1986 comedy starring Kathleen Turner as an unhappy wife and mother transported back to 1960. Watching Clark on a black and white TV set, she shakes her head in amazement, "Look at that man, he never ages."

Clark's clean-cut image survived a music industry scandal. In 1960, during a congressional investigation of "payola," or bribery in the record and radio industry, Clark was called on to testify.
He was cleared of any suspicions but was required by ABC to divest himself of record-company interests to avoid any appearance of a conflict of interest. The demand cost him $8 million, Clark once estimated. His holdings included partial ownership of Swan Records, which later released the first U.S. version of the Beatles' smash "She Loves You."
In 2004, Clark announced plans for a revamped version of "American Bandstand." The show, produced with "American Idol" creator Simon Fuller, was to feature a host other than Clark.
He was diagnosed with Type 2 diabetes in 1994 and served as spokesman for the American Association of Diabetes Educators.

Clark, twice divorced, had a son, Richard Augustus II, with first wife Barbara Mallery and two children, Duane and Cindy, with second wife Loretta Martin. He married Kari Wigton in 1977.

In a 1989 Times Union article, Clark spoke about “American Bandstand”:

“I can remember the day we went on the ABC network originally,” Clark said. “That was very exciting because we’d had a five- year history of (local) success in Philadelphia before then. There were a lot of people who were very skeptical about whether we’d succeed or not on a national level. We had said, ‘There is no doubt it will. It will, it will, it will.’ And we really believed it would. And it did.”

The show with Clark at the helm lasted for 37 years, and in that time Clark had a profound impact on popularizing pop music, and making Americans dance.

In the interview, he said, “I’m the luckiest human that ever walked the face of the Earth. I was blessed with good health and the ability to do what I only dreamed of as a child…. When the day comes for me to check out, or the Lord beckons me to go, they will say something about ‘He played the music and the kids danced.’ Or, ‘He was America’s Pied Piper.’ … One of the things I hope they will make note of is that we kept the music alive.”



"I was very sad to hear this news. We all felt Dick was always this handsome teenager, as we all got older, Dick remained a teenager. I will always appreciate what he did for me and for popular music. He presented Motown and The Supremes on tour with the Caravan of Stars and on American Bandstand where I got my start. Dick Clark was a pioneer, he was a music star maker, he was a legend and was my friend. He said that 'music is the soundtrack of your life.' Since I was 16, he was always a part of mine. My love and prayers go out to his family."Diana Ross.



"Even though I told him in 1984 that I wanted to rule the world, it's Dick Clark who has ruled the world. He loved what he did and his energy and enthusiasm were boundless. A great man. I bow to his memory and everything he did with his life. Rest in peace. You will be missed." - Madonna




"Dick Clark changed the face of musical television. He was wonderful to many artists including our family. We will miss him. God bless."Janet Jackson



"Not 2 many people actually deserve the term "legend", Dick Clark embodied it & never lost his humility or humanity. We will miss him!"Gloria Estefan





Madonna & Dick

Twenty eight years later, it remains one of the most famous things she's ever said. Asked on "American Bandstand" by TV icon Dick Clark, who died on Wednesday at the age of 82, "What do you hope will happen, not only in 1984 but for the rest of your professional life? What are your dreams? What's left?" Madonna answered simply, famously and with characteristic directness.
"To rule the world," she said without hesitation. And that's what she went on to do ... well, the pop world anyway.
She was on "Bandstand," ostensibly, to perform "Holiday" and promote her self-titled debut, which was released a few months earlier in the summer of 1983, but in retrospect it feels like she was really there to prepare the world for what was coming. Like a Virgin dropped later that same year, and with its release Madonna went from being a well-liked and charismatic pop tart with a few radio hits to the most famous female singer on the planet.
The "Bandstand" crowd went wild for then-25-year-old Madonna's performance, and Clark had a hard time getting a word in. When everyone finally settled down, he asked Madonna about her burgeoning career, including her early years in New York and touring Paris with "Born to Be Alive" singer Patrick Hernandez. "He offered me a tour with him as a background singer and a dancer," Madonna told Clark. "So I jumped on that boat and got into the music industry that way and started writing songs, and here I am."
As news of Clark's passing began to surface, fans started posting the clip all over Twitter and soon enough, Madonna's herself chimed in, posting the video to her Facebook page with the message, "Even though I told him in 1984 that I wanted to rule the world, it's Dick Clark who has ruled the world."
While "Bandstand" wasn't her first TV appearance and Clark certainly didn't discover Madonna - she already had a top-five hit with "Lucky Star" by the time she appeared - her visit to the show feels like the first seminal event in what went on to be one of the most legendary careers in pop-culture history. It's where things really began, months before she took the stage in a wedding dress at the first-ever MTV Video Music Awards.
It's also a real showcase for the Madonna many fans love most. Playful, natural, beautiful and - most importantly - brimming with confidence, it's no surprise the emerging pop star on display on "Bandstand" that night went on to score 38 top tens, more than any performer in music history, 12 #1 singles and eight #1 albums, the latest of which, MDNA, debuted in the top spot 28 years, two months and 20 days after her visit to "American Bandstand."
Today, many will be looking back on Dick Clark's many achievements and dissecting the almost immeasurable impact he had on music and television, and we'll remember for how genuinely excited he seemed to be talking to a little-known disco singer on January 14, 1984. His decision to invite her on that night quite literally changed the face of pop music forever, and for that we will always be thankful.
MTV
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