Solomon Burke was born on March 21, 1940, in an upstairs room of a Philadelphia church. The singer/songwriter went on to become known as the King of Rock and Soul. He began singing country recordings before moving on to gospel, blues, jazz and soul. When he was only 14 years-old, Burke signed with Apollo Records and recorded under the label for a few years. By the time he was 17, he found himself on hard times without a recording contract and much of his profits.
“I had to go through being a bum on the street, living in abandoned cars, eating pork and beans out of the can, begging for nickels and dimes on the corner,” Burke recalled. “God wanted me to go through those trials and tribulations, so I could understand having and wanting, and knowing how to show compassion, and help others as well as myself.”
Atlantic Records had their eye on young Solomon for quite some time, and after Ray Charles had left the label, Solomon was signed. When he showed up for his first recording session at Atlantic, he was given a country song to sing. The song, “Just Out of Reach (Of My Two Empty Arms)”, which had already been recorded by Patsy Cline, among others, was released the following year and became the first hit of Solomon’s for Atlantic. He followed suit with “Cry to Me” and “Down in the Valley”. He would have his biggest smash with the #1 R&B hit “Got to Get You Off My Mind” in 1965.
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Entertainer Kanye West adjusts his sunglasses before the Los Angeles premiere of his film ‘Runaway’ at the Harmony Gold Preview House on Monday (October 18) in California.
The star has been premiering the 35 minute film in various cities and recently announced on his twitter page that it will official be released on Saturday, October 23rd. Peep some random arrival photos below.
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Beyonce Knowles and her mother Tina Knowles teamed up with Temptu to produce and launch a temporary tattoo line under the Dereon label. The collectible kit of temporary tattoos includes the exclusive designs and tattoo essentials used on set to achieve the “real tattoo” looks featured on Beyonce in the Dereon Fall 2010 campaign. Founder and designer Tina Knowles had this much to say about the creative direction of the new Dereon product line:
“With a 60′s pin-up girl meets futuristic biker chick theme, Beyonce and I really wanted to give our Dereon Fall 2010 campaign a tough, edginess and we decided to invite Temptu to help us create custom body art for her to model with our fashions. The resulting images were so incredibly strong that we realized consumers might want to re-create the tattoos themselves. We are thrilled to partner with Temptu to bring this limited edition collection of temporary tattoos to the market this holiday season.”
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Actress Nia Long recently brought in her 40th birthday with Soiree in NYC. The event was presented by Belvedere Intense Unfiltered 80 and featured a menu by popular chef Marcus Samuelsson.
Attendees included actor Anthony Mackie (The Hurt Locker), stylist Robert Verdi and producer Tonya Lewis Lee (wife of Spike Lee).
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