Showing results for "david ritz"

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David Ritz

The Life of Marvin Gaye: Divided Soul is the definitive biography of an enormously gifted and sensitive musician.David Ritz presents his uniquely candid and intimate account of the tumultuous life of the Prince of Soul music, Marvin Gaye.Assembling years of conversations and interviews from his life as a close friend and lyricist to the gifted Soul sensation, Ritz tells the Marvin Gaye story with fly-on-the-wall accuracy and detail. From his early years as an abuse...

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David Ritz, Ray Charles

The multi-Grammy Award-winning pioneering soul musician tells the story of his childhood, career, and legacy—in this own words.Ray Charles (1930-2004) led one of the most extraordinary lives of any popular musician. In Brother Ray, he tells his story in an inimitable and unsparing voice, from the chronicle of his musical development to his heroin addiction to his tangled romantic life.Overcoming poverty, blindness, the loss of his parents, and the ...

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Desmond Child, David Ritz

Desmond Child is the ultimate hitmaker, contributing to some of the biggest smash global hits that helped ignite the success of music icons KISS, Bon Jovi, Aerosmith, Alice Cooper, Ricky Martin, Katy Perry, and countless others. In Livin' On A Prayer, he reveals how he climbed his way to the top and beyond amid extraordinary circumstances and shares his very personal and unbelievable journey that shaped him into an artist of international renown. For over half a century, Desmond Child has ...

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David Ritz

This "comprehensive and illuminating" biography of the Queen of Soul (USA Today) was hailed by Rolling Stone as "a remarkably complex portrait of Aretha Franklin's music and her tumultuous life."Aretha Franklin began life as the golden daughter of a progressive and promiscuous Baptist preacher. Raised without her mother, she was a gospel prodigy who gave birth to two sons in her teens and left them and her native Detroit for New York, where she st...

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David Ritz, Jerry Leiber, Mike Stoller

Jerry Lieber and Mike Stoller shaped the rock and roll era - this is their story in their own words.In 1950 a couple of rhythm and blues loving teenagers named Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller met for the first time. Leiber was looking for someone to help compose music for lyrics he'd written, and a friend recommended a Piano player named Mike Stoller. They discovered their mutual affection for R&B, and, as Jerry and Mike put it in this fascinating autobiography, it was the beginn...

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Desmond Child, David Ritz

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Desmond Child, Paul Stanley, David Ritz, C. Winston Simone

Grammy® winning and Emmy nominated producer / songwriter, who has contributed to some of the biggest global hits that helped ignite the success of music icons KISS, Bon Jovi, Aerosmith, Alice Cooper, Ricky Martin, Katy Perry, and countless others, released his first-ever memoir, “LIVIN' ON A PRAYER: BIG SONGS BIG LIFE” on September 19, 2023, via Radius Book Group. In this story of anguish and personal struggle, Child reveals how he climbed his way to the top and beyond amid extraordinary c...

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Lalah Hathaway, David Ritz

The first ever biography of Donny Hathaway—one of the most influential soul singers of all time—written by his daughter renowned soul singer Lalah Hathaway and the legendary music biographer David RitzHailed as a giant and a genius by his contemporaries, Donny Hathaway was only thirty-three when he died, and yet the mark he left on American soul remains indelible. His gifts would take him from inner-city St. Louis to the gospel circuit as a child prodigy, and from ...

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David Ritz

Born in Cleveland in 1925, "Little" Jimmy Scott lost his mother at age thirteen, the same year he was diagnosed with Kallman's syndrome. The disease stunted his growth and earned him his nickname, but it also left him with a haunting voice, a mesmerizing voice. He soon built a following as a singer touring with Lionel Hampton's great orchestra in the '40s, then performed with many of the stars of the '50s, from Lester Young to Charlie Parker to Dinah Washington, and was signed by Savoy Rec...

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David Ritz

"A biography as dramatic as any to come out of the pop field . . . told with sympathy and unflinching candor."-- San Francisco ChronicleIn this intimate biography of the Prince of Soul, David Ritz provides a candid look at a star and a friend. Ritz had been collaborating with Gaye on his story for several years before the singer's tragic death, and had conducted a series of extraordinary interviews in which Gaye discussed his deepest secrets. Drawing from t...

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Gary Sheffield, David Ritz

Becoming a Major League ballplayer for Dwight and me, that was the dream.Dwight is Dwight Gooden. Most people know him for winning the Cy Young Award. To me, though, he’s family, an uncle, but at four years older, really a brother. I can still remember those games of catch with Dwight in the backyard: him rearing back, and me somehow getting my mitt up to stop one of his fireballs. Often the two of us would sit with Grandpa (Dwight’s dad), and he’d tell us how hard it woul...

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David Ritz, Tip 'T.I.' Harris

Tip Harris, better known as Grammy Award-winning, multi-platinum selling hip-hop artist and actor T.I., is at the top of his game. Now he displays yet another side of his remarkable talents with Power & Beauty, a love story of life on the streets. Set in the dangerous shadows of Atlanta, Georgia, Power & Beauty is a dark, gritty story of sex, violence, hustling, and redemption centered around Paul “Power” Clay and Tanya “Beauty” Long—two kids facing long odds and lethal t...

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Ty Herndon, David Ritz

An intimate, often hilarious but always sincere memoir from country legend Ty Herndon on his struggles with addiction, mental health, his career, relationships, and being the first openly gay male country superstar.Ty Herndon may be most known for his beautiful country songs, but behind the music Herndon's own life could be the subject of a classic country ballad. His career began as a member of the band The Tennessee River Boys—the band that would later become Dia...