[…] “Be My Baby” by the Ronettes was one of the defining rock ‘n roll songs of the early 1960s — a song notable for advancing a new sound that changed pop music…“Be My Baby” is also a bigger story — of lives entangled in the business of making music during 1963-66 and the fallout years later, including the demise of the group, ill health for one member, a prominent divorce for another, and a protracted legal battle over royalties and song rights[…]

[…] In the summer of 2009, the Omega watch company, part of the Swatch Group of Switzerland, launched an ad campaign built around the image and words of former U.S. President, John F. Kennedy from the 1960s… The campaign, using the 40th anniversary of the 1969 Moon landing, focused on Kennedy’s initiative with the Apollo space program, using print & TV ads to promote Omega brand Speedmaster watches, which were used in the U.S. space and lunar programs […]

[…] This short video introduces Martin Scorsese’s documentary film on the Rolling Stones, “Shine a Light”. The full two-hour film features Rolling Stones performances that took place during their “Bigger Bang Tour” of 2006…. The video links to another Rolling Stones story at this website regarding their concert touring and business history […]

[…] In 1982, Sylvester Stallone, Hollywood movie star and producer of the Rocky film series, donated a statue of his Rocky Balboa movie character to the City of Philadelphia. It was left near the entrance to the Philadelphia Art Museum, where it touched off a controversy over the appropriateness of its location that would flare up several times over the course of more than 20 years […]

[…] In 1972, John Hall was a founding member of the rock ‘n roll group Orleans. Thirty-four years later he was elected to the United States Congress… This story covers his years with Orleans, some of their music, and Hall’s rise to Congress. […]

[…] In the early 1980s, Michael Jackson and Paul McCartney teamed up for some joint music projects. Their friendship led to Jackson’s discovery of the music publishing business, and ironically, his $47 million acquisition of a large and important Beatles music catalog… That catalog became an important asset for Jackson and a much sought-after prize in the music industry […]

[…] In April 2009, a European entertainment company named Imagem Music, shelled out an estimated $250-to-$300 million to acquire the rights to the Broadway legacy of music legends Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein — plus their New York organization covering some 12,000 songs, 900 concert works, 100 musicals, and 200 writers…This story covers that deal, and also the success, cultural impact, and history of R&H productions in America and elsewhere […]

[…] In 1990, the Irish rock group U2 went looking for their muse, and part of what they found was one of the top songs of the 1990s – “One” […]

[…] Before he became a U.S. Senator in 1978 and a Democratic candidate for President in the year 2000, Bill Bradley was a famous high school, college and pro NBA basketball player who reaped All-American and pro Hall-of-Fame honors. At Princeton, he set the nets on fire, was national College Player of the Year, a Final Four “most outstanding player,” and also became a Rhodes Scholar. With the New York Knicks (1967-77) he would win 2 NBA titles. And for 18 years he served with distinction in the U.S. Senate (1979-1997). His story is told here with lots of photos & links to books he has written on basketball, politics, culture, and economics […]

…Taylor Swift was a freshman sitting in her high school math class in Hendersonville, Tennessee when she began writing her first hit song. She was 14 years old. Within three years of that moment, Taylor Swift’s net worth began building to the tune of tens-of-millions-of-dollars….

Logo for the 2009 NCAA ‘Final Four’ basketball championship, played in Detroit, Michigan.     A front-page story in the Washington Post that ran a few days before the April 2009 “final four” championship NCAA basketball games, focused on the big money that would be flowing into Detroit’s local economy because of the tournament.  And indeed, organizers … Continue reading “Basketball Dollars”
NCAA-History →

Statue of a young Babe Ruth just outside the gates of Oriole Park at Camden Yards, Baltimore. Statue by Susan Luery; photo by Leo Cloutier, pbase.com. See other statue perspective, below.     In Baltimore, Maryland, at the Camden Yards baseball park, home of the Baltimore Orioles professional baseball team, there is a statue of Babe Ruth, … Continue reading “Ruth at Oriole Park”
1930s-2009 →

Record sleeve for ‘Paint It Black’ single issued in South Africa, 1966. Click for Rolling Stones “Hot Rocks” album.In the spring of 1966, all was not well in the world. The Vietnam War was then raging and American involvement there was escalating. U.S. troop strength had reached 200,000 by then, and draft quotas at home had doubled. Earlier … Continue reading “Paint It Black”
1966-2000s →

…Rocker Tom Petty’s 1989 hit song, “I Won’t Back Down,” has become a popular tune in political campaigns — used by: George W. Bush, Senators Hillary Clinton, Jim Webb, Bob Menendez, and John Edwards, to name a few… And also Eliot Spitzer…

[…]“Rosie the Riveter” is the name of a fictional character who came to symbolize the millions of real women who helped run America’s factories, munitions plants, and shipyards during World War II. In later years, Rosie also became an iconic American image in the fight to broaden women’s civil rights. This story covers those roles and Norman Rockwell’s “Rosie” image on the May 1943 cover of the “Saturday Evening Post” magazine, as well as other Rosie images that have survived to this day, used in popular womens’ & other protests…Also included is the Rosie The Riveter National Historical Park, plus a sidebar on Marilyn Monroe’s stint as a WWII factory “Rosie” & her beginnings as a subject in photographic art. […]

[…] In 1975, former U.S. President Richard Nixon made a business deal with British celebrity talk show host David Frost for a series of “tell us what happened” TV interviews on the Watergate scandal…The interviews aired with much fanfare in May 1977… And over the next 30 years, a small cottage industry grew up around the event, spawning a series of books, VHS tapes, DVDs, stage productions, a Hollywood film, more books, and lots of continuing debate…This piece looks at that Nixon-Frost history, including how Frost landed the deal, the media fanfare then, excerpts from the interviews, and the subsequent “Frost-Nixon biz” that followed […]

October 1989 edition of Forbes business magazine featuring Mick Jagger & Keith Richards among the world’s ‘highest paid entertainers’.     In October 1989, Forbes magazine featured rock ‘n roll stars Mick Jagger and Keith Richards of the Rolling Stones on its cover. The story’s headline asked: “What’ll They Do With All That Money?” — then referring to … Continue reading “Stones Gather Dollars”
1989-2008 →

[…] In 2005, General Electric, the giant American conglomerate, began running one of its
“Ecomagination” TV ads to tout “clean coal,” employing sexy “model miners” in the spot to deliver its message… Yet the ad found a number of critics, objecting to unrealistic portrayal of coal mining’s dangers and the use of the backing song, “Sixteen Tons,” from the 1950s […]

[…] “Do You Love Me?,” a song by The Contours produced at the Motown music studios, has had several good runs over the last 50 years. In 1962, it hit No. 1 on the Billboard R&B chart and No. 3 on the pop chart, becoming a million seller. After the film “Dirty Dancing” used the song in 1987 to back a hot dance scene, the fortunes’s of “Do You Love Me (Now That I Can Dance)” rose again, cracking the Top 20 in 1988. And in recent years it has been used in various promotions and advertising, including a 2016 Super Bowl ad starring Janelle Monáe […]

[…]When the Beatles first came to the U.S. in February 1964, their first-ever live concert performance in Washington, D.C., was filmed by CBS for later use as a “closed-circuit concert” shown in slected U.S. theaters[…]

[…] In 2006-2008, Dennis Hopper – film star of quirky, crazy and/or villainous characters in films such as Easy Rider (1969), Apocalypse Now (1979), Blue Velvet (1986), Speed (1994), Waterworld (1995), and others – did a series of TV ads pitching retirement planning for Ameriprise Financial Corp. Hopper brought an air of Boomer attitude to the spots, though not a Boomer himself, though company surveys found he connected with Boomer viewers[…]

[…] Bobby Darin’s music and film career lasted a short 15 years, ending in his premature death at age 37. But for a time, Bobby Darin set the entertainment world on fire, topping the pop music charts, becoming a successful Las Vegas headliner, Hollywood actor, and film-score writer. Along the way he married actress Sandra Dee, became a social & political activist, and had a change of life after Bobby Kennedy’s assassination […]

[…] He’s been on the run since 1980 when novelist Robert Ludlum first created him for his popular spy thrillers, and he is still on the run today in a series of popular films, played by actor Matt Damon. The Bourne storyline, in fact, has proven to be a gigantic economic success […] and has created a global entertainment empire […]

[…] “American Bandstand” was a TV dance show that began in Philadelphia, PA in the 1950s. It became an important arbiter of rock `n roll in American culture, enabling a giant rock music business to explode nationally with the help of Baby Boomer kids… The show also became synonymous with its principal creator & DJ, Dick Clark, who parlayed the show into other entertainment ventures making him a wealthy man […]

[…]She walked away from her husband and a successful musical career with some loose pocket change, a gasoline credit card, and little else. It was early July 1976… For a time, she relied on friends and food stamps to survive… But Tina Turner never lost her moxie… By 2005, Tina Turner had become one of the most successful female rock artists of all time […]

In early March 1961 in New York, Phil Graham, the 45 year-old publisher of the Washington Post had just written a personal check for $2 million to the Astor Foundation… The Post was then in the process of acquiring one of the nation’s most prominent weekly newsmagazines, “Newsweek”… This piece describes some of the history, background, and characters involved in that deal, and what happened to Newsweek and the Washington Post in the years that followed, including recent events in the 2000s […]

[…] In 1978, an all-sports cable TV network was hardly a “no brainer.” The three major TV networks combined then broadcast only about 20 hours of sports a week […] But Bill Rasmussen, a former sportscaster and recently fired communications man for the New England Whalers ice hockey team, came up with the new concept in sports broadcasting. In a few short years, ESPN was big business […]

[…] “Profiles in Courage” became a best-seller and was ground-breaking in its day, becoming one of the first books used to advance a political career aimed at the White House […] The book gave Kennedy a certain political gravitas and national recognition he did not have before, lifting him from the ranks of unknown senators […]

In 1993, before she graced the cover of Rolling Stone magazine at right, Gisele Bündchen was a skinny 14 year-old kid in southern Brazil who aspired to play professional volleyball […] Photo: Supermodel Gisele Bundchen, on cover of the September 14, 2000 issue of Rolling Stone magazine, then naming her, ‘the most beautiful girl in the world.’