Janis Ian is an American singer-songwriter who was most commercially successful in the 1960s and 1970s. Her signature songs are the 1966/67 hit "Society's Child " and the 1975 Top Ten single "At Seventeen", from her seventh studio album Between the Lines, which in September 1975 reached no. 1 on the U.S. Billboard 200 chart.
Kiss was an American rock band formed in New York City in 1973 by Paul Stanley, Gene Simmons, Ace Frehley, and Peter Criss. Known for their face paint and stage outfits, the group rose to prominence in the mid-1970s with shock rock-style live performances which featured fire-breathing, blood-spitting, smoking guitars, shooting rockets, levitating drum kits, and pyrotechnics. The band went through several lineup changes, with Stanley and Simmons remaining the only consistent members. The final lineup consisted of them, Tommy Thayer, and Eric Singer.
Gene Simmons is an American musician. Also known by his stage persona "The Demon", he was the bassist and co-lead singer of the hard rock band Kiss, which he co-founded with Paul Stanley, Ace Frehley and Peter Criss in the early 1970s until their retirement in 2023. Simmons was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2014 as a member of Kiss.
George Peter John Criscuola, better known by his stage name Peter Criss, is a retired American musician, best known as a co-founder, original drummer, and an occasional vocalist of the hard rock band Kiss. Criss established the Catman character for his Kiss persona. In 2014, he was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a member of Kiss.
Paul Daniel "Ace" Frehley is an American musician who was the original lead guitarist, occasional lead vocalist and founding member of the rock band Kiss. He invented the persona of The Spaceman and played with the group from its inception in 1973 until his departure in 1982. After leaving Kiss, Frehley formed his own band named Frehley's Comet and released two albums with the group. He subsequently embarked on a solo career, which was put on hold when he rejoined Kiss in 1996 for a highly successful reunion tour.
Fresh Air is an American radio talk show broadcast on National Public Radio stations across the United States since 1985. It is produced by WHYY-FM in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The show's host is Terry Gross. As of 2017, the show was syndicated to 624 stations and claimed nearly 5 million listeners. The show is fed live weekdays at 12:00 noon ET. In addition, some stations carry Fresh Air Weekend, a re-programming of highlights of the week's interviews. In 2016, Fresh Air was the most-downloaded podcast on iTunes.
Alan Charles Jardine is an American musician who co-founded the Beach Boys. He is best known as the band's rhythm guitarist, background vocalist, and for occasionally singing lead vocals on singles such as "Help Me, Rhonda" (1965), "Then I Kissed Her" (1965), "Cottonfields" (1970), and a cover of the Del-Vikings’ "Come Go with Me" (1981). His song "Lady Lynda" was also a UK top 10 hit for the group in 1978. Other Beach Boys songs that feature Jardine on lead include "I Know There's an Answer" (1966), “Vegetables" (1967), a cover of Buddy Holly’s “Peggy Sue” (1978), and "From There to Back Again" (2012).
Hotter than Hell is the second studio album by American hard rock band Kiss, released on October 22, 1974, by Casablanca Records. It was certified gold on June 23, 1977, having shipped 500,000 copies. The album was re-released in 1997 in a remastered version. It peaked on the Billboard 200 charts at No. 100, without the benefit of a hit single. Many of the album's songs were live staples for the band, including "Parasite", "Hotter than Hell", "Let Me Go, Rock 'n' Roll", and "Watchin' You".
"1985" is a song that was written and recorded by American rock band SR-71 for their album Here We Go Again. Mitch Allan, SR-71's frontman, gave the song to American rock band Bowling for Soup, who recorded a cover version that reached number 23 on the US Billboard Hot 100 and was included on the band's album A Hangover You Don't Deserve.
"Ain't No Sunshine" is a song by Bill Withers, from his 1971 debut album Just As I Am, produced by Booker T. Jones. The record featured musicians Donald "Duck" Dunn on bass guitar, Al Jackson Jr. on drums and Stephen Stills on guitar. String arrangements were done by Booker T. Jones. The song was recorded in Los Angeles, with overdubs in Memphis by engineer Terry Manning.
Kiss is the debut studio album by American rock band Kiss, released on February 18, 1974, by Casablanca Records. Much of the material on the album was written by Gene Simmons and Paul Stanley, as members of their pre-Kiss band Wicked Lester. Simmons estimated that the entire process of recording and mixing took three weeks, while co-producer Richie Wise has stated it took just 13 days.
"I Was Made for Lovin' You" is a song by American hard rock band Kiss, originally released on their 1979 album, Dynasty. It was released as the A-side of their first single from the album, with "Hard Times" as the B-side. The song was heard in the 2024 monster film Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire
"Red River Valley" is a folk song and cowboy music standard of uncertain origins that has gone by different names, depending on where it has been sung. It is listed as Roud Folk Song Index 756 and by Edith Fowke as FO 13. It is recognizable by its chorus :
"Aqualung" is a song by the British progressive rock band Jethro Tull, and the title track from their Aqualung (1971) album. The song was written by the band's frontman, Ian Anderson, and his then-wife Jennie Franks.
"After the Love Has Gone" is a single by Earth, Wind & Fire released in 1979 on ARC/Columbia Records. The song reached No. 2 on both the US Billboard Hot 100 and the US Billboard Hot R&B Singles chart, No. 4 on the UK Pop Singles chart, and No. 3 on the US Billboard Adult Contemporary Songs chart. "After the Love Has Gone" was certified gold in the US by the RIAA and silver in the UK by the BPI.
"Superman (It's Not Easy)" is a song written and performed by American singer Five for Fighting. It was released on April 16, 2001, as the second single from his second studio album America Town. Following the September 11 attacks, the song was used to honor the victims, survivors, police, and firefighters involved in the attacks.
"Starship Trooper" is a song written by British musicians Jon Anderson, Steve Howe and Chris Squire, which first appeared on Yes' 1971 album The Yes Album. The song is in three parts, "Life Seeker", "Disillusion" and "Würm". "Life Seeker" was released as a single on the B-side of the UK release of "Your Move".
"No Man's Land" is a song written in 1976 by Scottish-born Australian folk singer-songwriter Eric Bogle, reflecting on the grave of a young man who died in World War I. Its chorus refers to two famous pieces of military music, the "Last Post" and the "Flowers of the Forest". Its melody, its refrain, and elements of its subject matter are similar to those of "Streets of Laredo", a North American cowboy ballad whose origins can be traced back to an 18th-century English ballad called "The Unfortunate Rake" and the Irish Ballad "Lock Hospital". In 2009, Bogle told an audience in Weymouth that he had read about a girl who had been presented with a copy of the song by then prime minister Tony Blair, who called it "his favourite anti-war poem".
"China Grove" is a song by American rock band the Doobie Brothers, released in 1973 on their third studio album, The Captain and Me. It was written and sung by the band's original lead singer and songwriter Tom Johnston. The song reached number 15 on the US Billboard Hot 100. While there is a real place named China Grove in Texas, Johnston's lyrics about the community are mostly fictional. The song spent eight weeks in the Top 40.
Willie Chambers is a singer, guitarist, and former member of The Chambers Brothers, a rock band in the 1960s with hits "In The Midnight Hour", "I Can't Turn You Loose", and "Time Has Come Today". He continues to be a regular attraction at various venues in Los Angeles and further afield.
