Joseph Raymond "Ray" Conniff (November 6, 1916 – October 12, 2002) was an American bandleader and arranger best known for his Ray Conniff Singers during the 1960s.
Conniff was born in Attleboro, Massachusetts, and learned to play the trombone from his father. He studied music arranging from a course book.
After serving in the U.S. Army in World War II (where he worked under Walter Schumann), he joined the Artie Shaw big band and wrote many arrangements for him. After his stint with Shaw, he was then hired by Mitch Miller, then head of A&R at Columbia Records, as their home arranger, working with several artists including Rosemary Clooney, Marty Robbins, Frankie Laine, Johnny Mathis, Guy Mitchell and Johnnie Ray. He wrote a top 10 arrangement for Don Cherry's "Band of Gold" in 1955, a single that sold more than a million copies. Among the hit singles he backed with his orchestra (and eventually with a male chorus) were "Yes Tonight Josephine" and "Just Walkin' in the Rain" by Johnnie Ray; "Chances Are" and "It's Not for Me to Say" by Johnny Mathis; "A White Sport Coat" and "The Hanging Tree" by Marty Robbins; "Moonlight Gambler" by Frankie Laine; "Up Above My Head," a duet by Frankie Laine and Johnnie Ray; and "Pet Me, Poppa" by Rosemary Clooney. He also backed up the albums Tony by Tony Bennett, Blue Swing by Eileen Rodgers, Swingin' for Two by Don Cherry, and half the tracks of The Big Beat by Johnnie Ray.
Rhapsody in Blue is a 1924 musical composition by American composer George Gershwin for solo piano and jazz band, which combines elements of classical music with jazz-influenced effects.
Commissioned by bandleader Paul Whiteman, the composition was orchestrated by Ferde Grofé several times, including the original 1924 scoring, "theater orchestra" setting published in 1926, and the symphony orchestra scoring published in 1942, though completed earlier. The piece received its premiere in the concert, An Experiment in Modern Music, which was held on February 12, 1924, in Aeolian Hall, New York, by Whiteman and his band with Gershwin playing the piano.
The editors of the Cambridge Music Handbooks opined that "The Rhapsody in Blue (1924) established Gershwin's reputation as a serious composer and has since become one of the most popular of all American concert works."
After the success of an experimental classical-jazz concert held with French-Canadian singer Eva Gauthier at Aeolian Hall (New York) on November 1, 1923, band leader Paul Whiteman decided to attempt something more ambitious. He asked Gershwin to contribute a concerto-like piece for an all-jazz concert he would give in Aeolian Hall in February 1924. Whiteman became interested in featuring such an extended composition by Gershwin in the concert after he had collaborated with Gershwin in the Scandals of 1922, impressed by the original performance of the one-act opera Blue Monday, which was nevertheless a commercial failure. Gershwin declined on the grounds that, as there would certainly be need for revisions to the score, he would not have enough time to compose the new piece.
Rhapsody In Blue (Simplified Chinese: 蓝色仙人掌) (Pinyin: lán sè xiān rén zhǎng, literally translated means "Blue Cactus" with "lán sè" meaning blue) is a Singaporean Chinese drama which is being telecast on Singapore's free-to-air channel, MediaCorp TV Channel 8 every weekday at 7pm in June, 2006. The show stars Jesseca Liu, Christopher Lee, Guo Liang, Phyllis Quek, Eelyn Kok and Chen Hanwei.
Twenty-four-year-old teacher Ding Yirou (Jesseca Liu) decides to marry 40-year-old divorcee Guo Yongtao (Chen Hanwei) despite vehement objections from her parents and disapproval from Yongtao’s 11-year-old daughter Doudou (Boon Hui Lu). The stubborn and wilful girl runs away from home as a sign of protest and during the frantic search, Yongtao is killed instantly in a hit-and-run accident. Traumatised, Doudou loses her ability to speak. Yirou, out of guilt and love for Yongtao, decides to be Doudou’s guardian and takes the child into her family home.
Rhapsody in Blue is a musical composition by American composer George Gershwin.
It may also refer to:
Frosty the snowman
Was a jolly happy soul
With a corn cop pipe
And a button nose
And two eyes
Made out of coal
Frosty the snowman
Is a fairy tale they say
He was made out of snow
But the children know how
He came to life one day
There must of been
Some magic in
That ol' silk cap
They found
For when they placed it
On his head
He began to dance around
Frosty the snowman
Was alive as he could be
And the children say
He could laugh and play
Just the same
As you and me
Frosty the snowman
Knew the snow
Was hot that day
So he said lets run
And have some fun
Before I melt away
Down to the village
With a broom stick
In his hand
Runnin' here and there
All around the square
Sayin' catch me
If you can
He led them down
The streets of town
Right
To the traffic cop
And he only
Paused a moment
When he heard him
Holler stop
Frosty the snowman
Had to hurry on his way
But he
Waved goodbye sayin'
Please don't cry
I'll be back again