He was extremely private in his early televised interviews, once stating that personal information distracted from musical performance, and thus even his date of birth was considered anecdotal information. Later, he became more open and stated in interviews that in the 60s and 70s he had suffered from serious addictions which affected his career, and he credited his family, and a period of spiritual study while undergoing rehabilitation sessions, for helping him to overcome his drug and alcohol problems by the early 80s. Some recorded songs on the Little David record label (a subsidiary of Atlantic Records) featured his wife Yvonne and his daughters singing background, as the Rankin Family Band. His album "Family" featured cover art of Rankin holding his two young daughters. The Rankins also had a son.
Occasionally criticised for poor choice of material, considering his talents, by the 90s, he was able to angle his repertoire to accommodate his own musical preferences and to please a new audience while still keeping faith with the faithful. Rankin's warm singing style and his soft, nylon-stringed guitar sound might suggest an artist more attuned to the supper-club circuit than the jazz arena, but his work contains many touches that appeal to the jazz audience, especially as he introduced more "standards" from the 30s and 40s into his performances. Reviews in the periodical Down Beat and later print media increasingly reinforced his jazz credentials.
Rankin's song "Haven't We Met" was performed by Mel Tormé and Carmen McRae, while Stan Getz said of him that he was "a horn with a heartbeat". Rankin's accompanists have from time to time included pianists Alan Broadbent, Mike Wofford and trombonist Bill Watrous, and on such occasions the mood slips easily into a jazz groove. But Don Costa's full orchestral arrangements were used to back his voice to critical acclaim, following a trend in the wake of Harry Nilsson with Gordon Jenkins and Linda Ronstadt with Nelson Riddle, to emulate the lush soundscape that some say reached its apogee with Frank Sinatra's Capitol recordings. Rankin was also deeply interested in Brazilian music and his "Here In My Heart," on which he used jazz guests including Michael Brecker and Ernie Watts, was recorded mostly in Rio de Janeiro. More contemporary songs were given an airing following his move to Verve Records, including the Beatles' "I've Just Seen A Face" and Leon Russell's "A Song For You."
Rankin's own unique gift for reworking classic songs such as The Beatles' "Blackbird," which he recorded for his "Silver Morning" album, so impressed Paul McCartney that he asked Rankin to perform his interpretation of the song when McCartney and John Lennon were inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame.
Rankin was diagnosed with terminal lung cancer in May 2009. He died in Los Angeles, California - where he had resided for many years - from the disease on June 7, 2009. He was 69 years old.
Yanow, Scott, The Jazz Singers: The Ultimate Guide, Backbeat Books, 2008.
Kort, Michael, Soul Picnic: The Music and Passion of Laura Nyro, Thomas Dunne Books / St. Martin's Press, 2002.
Sarah Geronimo
Sarah Asher Tua Geronimo (born July 25, 1988) is a Filipina actress and singer. She started her career at a young age, and became famous after she won the "Star for a Night" singing contest. Her first album was "Popstar: A Dream Come True".
Bolton
Bolton (called Bolton le moors in the past) is a town in the North West of England. It is to the north-west of Manchester. It is part of Greater Manchester. Bolton was part of Lancashire until the 1970s. It was famous for its cotton industry.
Mount Pleasant
Mount Pleasant may mean:
Jonathan Edwards (athlete)
Jonathan David Edwards, CBE, (born 10 May 1966 in London) is a former British triple jumper. He is a former Olympic, Commonwealth, European and World champion. He has held the world record in the event since 1995.
After his retirement as an athlete, Edwards has worked as an athletics commentator and presenter for BBC television. He was a devout Christian. He presented episodes of the BBC Christian worship programme "Songs of Praise". He lost faith in 2007. He was a member of the London Organising Committee for the Olympic Games in 2012. He is President of the Wenlock Olympian Society.
Edwards attended West Buckland School where his ability in the triple jump was seen at an early age. He was a strong all-rounder and on leaving received the school's top award for sporting and academic excellence, the Fortescue Medal. Other students with Edwards at West Buckland School included Victor Ubogu and Steve Ojomoh. Both are former Bath and England Rugby international players. Edwards now has a Sports Hall at West Buckland named after him; "The Jonathan Edwards Sports Centre". Edwards then read Physics at Durham University, attending Van Mildert College.
Because of his strong Christian beliefs, he refused to compete on Sundays at first. Eventually he decided to do so in 1993. This decision proved important, since the qualifying round at that year's World Championships took place on a Sunday. He went on to win the bronze medal.
In his breakthrough year of 1995, he produced a jump of 18.43 m (60 feet 5½ inches) at the European Cup. The leap was wind assisted and did not count for record purposes. But it was a sign of things to come as he capped an unbeaten year. He had a historic gold medal performance at the World Championships. There he broke the world record twice in the same meet. On his first jump, he became the first man to legally pass the 18-metre barrier (18.16 m/59 feet 7 inches). That record lasted for about 20 minutes. His second jump of 18.29 m made him the first to jump 60 feet. During his commentary for the 2008 Summer Olympics, Edwards said that during the 1995 World Championships, he felt as if "he could jump as far as he needed to". Later the same year Edwards became the BBC Sports Personality of the Year.
During 1996 Edwards went into the Olympic games as favourite and world record holder. But it was American Kenny Harrison who took the gold with a jump of 18.09 m. Edwards walked away with the silver after a leap of 17.88 m (the longest ever jump not to win gold). Edwards won the gold medal at the 2000 Summer Olympic Games. He was awarded the CBE shortly afterwards. He also won golds at the 2001 World Championships and 2002 Commonwealth Games. At one point in 2002, Edwards held all the gold medals for the "four majors" (Olympic Games, World Championships, Commonwealth Games & European Championships). He retired after the 2003 World Championships as Great Britain's most successful medal winning athlete.
Following his retirement, Edwards pursued a media career as a television presenter. He worked mainly for the BBC as a sports commentator and on programmes such as "Songs of Praise". He gave up this programme, due to his loss of faith, in February 2007.
In 2004 Edwards joined with Paula Radcliffe on an "Olympic Special Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?". The pair raised £64,000 for charity with half of that sum going to the British Olympic Association and a quarter of the sum going to Asthma UK.
He was a member of the London Organising Committee for the Olympic Games. He represented athletes in the organisation of the 2012 Summer Olympics. He is President of the Wenlock Olympian Soceity.
An honorary doctorate was conferred upon him at a ceremony at the University of Exeter on 21 January 2006.
Later in the same year, an honorary doctorate of the university (DUniv) was conferred upon him at the winter graduation ceremony of the University of Ulster (19 December 2006).
Edwards lives with his wife Alison in Gosforth, Newcastle upon Tyne. He has two sons, Nathan and Sam.