Jan. 31: Johnny Rotten of the Sex Pistols and Public Image Ltd. is 55 today.

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Did you know?

The origin of John Lydon's stage name, Johnny Rotten, has had two longstanding explanations. One, given in a Daily Telegraph feature interview with Lydon in 2007, was that he was given the name in the mid 1970s, when his lack of oral hygiene led to his teeth turning green. Another story says the name was given to him by Sex Pistols guitarist Steve Jones, who saw Lydon's teeth and exclaimed, "You're rotten, you are!"

It was Lydon who came up with the nickname of "Sid Vicious" for his bandmate John Simon Ritchie, naming him after his parents' pet hamster.

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Born John Joseph Lydon - but better known by the former stage name Johnny Rotten - is a singer-songwriter and television presenter, best known as the lead singer of punk band the Sex Pistols from 1975 until 1978, and again for various revivals during the 1990s and 2000s.

He is also well known as the lead singer of the post-punk band Public Image Ltd., which he founded and fronted from 1978 until 1993, and again in 2009–2010. A highly controversial figure, Q Magazine remarked that "somehow he's assumed the status of national treasure."

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In the beginning...

Growing up as the son of Irish immigrants in an impoverished area of London, he listened mostly to rock bands like Hawkwind, Captain Beefheart, Alice Cooper and Iggy and the Stooges — bands his mother also used to like, a fact which somewhat embarrassed him — as well as more mainstream groups like T. Rex and Gary Glitter.

At 15 years old, he was kicked out of the school after a run in with a teacher, and went to a state school, Hackney and Kingsway Princeton College, where he befriended John Simon Ritchie AKA Sid Vicious.

Lydon's personally crafted image and fashion style led to him being asked to become the singer of the Sex Pistols. With the Pistols, he penned singles including "Anarchy in the U.K.," "God Save the Queen" and "Holidays in the Sun," the content of which precipitated the "last and greatest outbreak of pop-based moral pandemonium" in Britain.

The band caused an uproar by many who objected to the content of Lydon’s lyrics, and their antics, which included cursing and swearing on live television. Lydon was largely seen as the figurehead of the punk movement although this idea was not widely supported amongst the punk movement itself. Despite the negative reaction that they provoked, they are now regarded as one of the most influential acts in the history of popular music.

Lydon left the Pistols in 1978 to found his own band, Public Image Ltd, that was far more experimental in nature, and which has been described as "arguably the first post-rock group." Although never as commercially successful as the Pistols, the band produced eight albums and a string of singles, including "Death Disco," "Rise" and "Disappointed," before they went on indefinite hiatus in 1993.

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In subsequent years, Lydon hosted a number of television shows in the UK, USA and Belgium, as well as writing an autobiography, Rotten: No Irish, No Blacks, No Dogs  in 1993, and producing some solo musical work, such as the album Psycho's Path in 1997.

In the 2000s, Lydon once more took up being the vocalist for both the Sex Pistols and subsequently also Public Image Ltd as well for a number of reunion tours.

Since leaving the Sex Pistols he has made his private fortune through property development. He currently lives in Los Angeles, California. Oh, and he's gotten his teeth fixed.

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Jan. 31: Singer and actor Justin Timberlake of N'Sync and "Socal Network" is 30 today.

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Did you know?


Justin Timberlake has won six Grammy Awards as well as two Emmy Awards. He achieved early fame when he appeared as a contestant on Star Search, and went on to star in the Disney Channel television series The New Mickey Mouse Club, where he met future 'N Sync bandmate JC Chasez.


Timberlake's first two solo albums made him one of the most commercially successful singers in the world, each selling in excess of 7 million copies.


Aside from music, he has also begun an acting career, while his other ventures include record label Tennman Records, fashion label William Rast, and the restaurants Destino and Southern Hospitality.

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Justin Randall Timberlake was born in Memphis, Tennessee. His mother runs an entertainment company called Just-in Time Entertainment. His first attempts at a singing career were country music songs on Star Search as "Justin Randall."

In 1993, Timberlake joined the cast of The Mickey Mouse Club. His cast-mates included future girlfriend and pop superstar Britney Spears, future tour-mate Christina Aguilera, and future bandmate JC Chasez. The show ended in 1994, but late in 1995 Timberlake recruited Chasez to be in an all-male singing group that eventually became 'N Sync.

Timberlake and JC Chasez were the two lead singers of the popular 1990s boy band. The group formed in 1995, started its career 1996 in Europe, and hit it big in the United States in 1998 with the U.S. release of its debut album *NSYNC, which sold 11 million copies. The album included a number of hit singles, including "Tearin' Up My Heart."

The group signed with Jive Records. and in March 2000, 'N Sync released a long-awaited album, No Strings Attached, which became the fastest-selling album of all time with 2.4 million copies sold in its first week and produced a #1 single, "It's Gonna Be Me."

This was followed by the band's third album, Celebrity, which was the second-fastest selling album of all time. In 2002, after the completion of a "Celebrity Tour" and the release of "Girlfriend," the third single from Celebrity, the group decided to take time off, at which point Timberlake began work on his first solo album and the group went into a hiatus. The group sold more than 50 million copies worldwide, becoming the third-best selling boy band in history.

As a member of 'N Sync, Timberlake developed into a major celebrity in his own right in addition to achieving respect as a musician, since he was the writer or co-writer of all three singles from Celebrity. The rise of his own stardom and the general decline in the popularity of boy bands led to the dissolution of 'N Sync.


In late 1999, Timberlake made his acting debut in the Disney Channel movie Model Behavior.

Timberlake's first "single" single, "Like I Love You," reached #11 on the Billboard Hot 100. he then released the album Justified in November 2002. The album sold fewer copies than previous 'N Sync efforts but debuted at #2 on the Billboard 200 album chart and eventually went on to sell more than three million copies in the U.S. and more than seven million copies worldwide.

The album also received critical acclaim, thanks to its heavy R&B influence provided by hip-hop producers The Neptunes and Timbaland. It spun off hits throughout late 2002 and 2003, including the top ten singles "Cry Me a River" and "Rock Your Body."

After the Super Bowl controversy, where he exposed Janet Jackson's breast (in case you were living on another planet when it happened), Timberlake put his recording career on hold to act in several films, having starred in a few feature films earlier in his music career.

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The first was as a journalist in the thriller Edison Force, which received a direct-to-video release in July 2006. He also appeared in the films Alpha Dog, Black Snake Moan, Richard Kelly's Southland Tales, and voiced Prince Artie Pendragon in the animated film Shrek the Third in 2007. He also appeared as a young Elton John, in the video for John's song "This Train Don't Stop There Anymore."

He continued to record with other artists. After "Where Is the Love?" he collaborated with the Black Eyed Peas for a second time on the 2005 track "My Style" from their album Monkey Business. When recording the 2005 single "Signs" with Snoop Dogg, Timberlake discovered a throat condition. Nodules were subsequently removed from his throat.

In the summer of 2005, Timberlake started his own record company, JayTee Records. In May 2006, imberlake made a cameo in the video for Nelly Furtado and Timbaland's single "Promiscuous." 

Nite Runner" and "Falling Down" for Duran Duran's album Red Carpet Massacre. Also in 2007, Timberlake made an appearance on 50 Cent's third album, Curtis.

Timberlake continues to collaborate with other artists, and act in films. He recently starred in the film Social Network.


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Jan. 31: Carol Channing - "Hello, Dolly! " is 90 today.

Singer, actress, and comedienne Carol Channing has received three Tony Awards (including one for lifetime achievement), a Golden Globe and an Oscar nomination.

Channing is best remembered for originating, on Broadway, the musical-comedy roles of bombshell Lorelei Lee in Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, and matchmaking widow Dolly Gallagher Levi in Hello, Dolly!

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Carol Elaine Channing was born in Seattle, Washington, and her family moved to San Francisco shortly after she was born. Carol attended Lowell High School in San Francisco, where she was a member of its famed Lowell Forensic Society, the nation's oldest high-school debate team.




Channing first became interested in acting while distributing Christian Science Monitors backstage at the live theatres in San Francisco with her mother. "This is for people who have gotten a glimpse of creation and all they do is recreate it," Channing said during a 2005 interview with the Austin Chronicle. "I stood there and wanted to kiss the floorboards."

Channing's first job on stage in New York was in Marc Blitzstein's No For an Answer in 1941 when was 19 years old. Channing then moved to Broadway for Let's Face It!

Five years later, Channing had a featured role in a revue, Lend an Ear. She was spotted by author Anita Loos and cast in Gentlemen Prefer Blondes as Lorelei Lee, the role that brought her to prominence. Her signature song from the production was "Diamonds Are a Girl's Best Friend."

In 1961, Channing became one of a very few Tony Award nominees to gain a nomination for work in a revue rather than a traditional musical, when she was nominated for Best Actress in a Musical, for the short-lived revue Show Girl.

Channing came to national prominence as the star of Jerry Herman's Hello, Dolly! She never missed a performance during her run. Her performance won her the Tony Award for Best Actress in a Musical, in a year when her chief competition was Barbra Streisand for Funny Girl, who coincidentally, played Dolly Levi in the film version.

Channing reprised the role of Lorelei Lee in the musical Lorelei. She also appeared in two New York revivals of Hello, Dolly!, and toured with it extensively throughout the United States.

She also appeared in a number of movies, The First Traveling Sales Lady in 1956, the cult film Skidoo and Thoroughly Modern Millie, opposite Julie Andrews and Mary Tyler Moore. For Millie she received a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress, and was awarded a Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actress – Motion Picture.

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During her film career she also made guest appearances on television sitcoms and talk shows, including  What's My Line?, on which she appeared in eleven episodes from 1962 to 1966. Channing also did a fair amount of voice over work in cartoons, most notably as Grandmama Addams in an animated version of The Addams Family which ran from 1992 to 1995.

Channing was inducted into the American Theatre Hall of Fame in 1981. She was awarded a Lifetime Achievement Tony Award in 1995, and an honorary doctorate in Fine Arts by California State University, Stanislaus in 2004. That same year, she received the Oscar Hammerstein Award for Lifetime Achievement in Musical Theatre.

She and husband Harry Kullijian are active in promoting arts education in California schools with the Dr. Carol Channing and Harry Kullijian Foundation.

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Jan. 31: Eddie Cantor - "Makin' Whoopie," "If You Knew Susie"- was born on this date in 1892...

He was 72 when he died from a heart attack on October 10, 1964.

Born Edward Israel Iskowitz in New York City, Eddie Cantor was a vaudeville performer, dancer, comedian, singer, actor, and songwriter. His charity and humanitarian work  was extensive. He is credited with coining the phrase and helping to develop The March of Dimes.

His mother died in childbirth one year after his birth, and his father died when he  was two, leaving him to be raised by his grandmother, Esther Kantrowitz.  A misunderstanding when signing her grandson for school gave him her last name of Kantrowitz (shortened by the clerk to Kanter). Esther died on January 29, 1917, two days before he signed a long-term contract with to appear in the Ziegfeld  Follies.

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He had adopted the first name "Eddie" when he met his future wife Ida Tobias in 1903, because she felt that "Izzy" wasn't a good name for an actor. (They  married in 1914.) They had five daughters: Marjorie, Natalie, Edna, Marilyn and Janet - who provided comic fodder for Cantor's longtime running gag, especially on radio, about his five "un-marriable" daughters. A gag several radio historians including Gerald Nachman (Raised on Radio) have said did not always sit well with the girls.

Broadway, radio and early TV audiences were familiar with Cantor and was regarded almost as "a family member" by millions. His eye-rolling song-and-dance routines eventually led to his nickname, Banjo Eyes. His eyes became his trademark, often exaggerated in illustrations, and leading to his appearance on Broadway in the musical Banjo Eyes in 1941.

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Jan. 30: English singer-songwriter Phil Collins with Genesis is 60 today.

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Did you know?

Phil was an extra in The Beatles' A Hard Day's Night – one of hundreds of screaming teenagers during the TV concert sequence and seen fleetingly in a close-up.

He was also in Chitty Chitty Bang Bang as one of the children who stormed the castle at the end of the movie but was edited out.

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Philip David Charles Collins (LVO) is best known as a drummer, keyboardist and vocalist for English progressive rock group Genesis and as a solo artist.

By 2000, Collins's total worldwide sales as a solo artist were 150 million. He has won seven Grammy Awards, an Academy Award, and two Golden Globes for his solo work.

He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a member of Genesis in 2010.

Collins sang the lead vocals on several chart hits in the U.K.and the U.S. between 1978 and 1994, as a solo artist and with Genesis. His singles included the drum-heavy "In the Air Tonight," dance pop of "Sussudio," piano-driven "Against All Odds," to the political statements of "Another Day in Paradise."

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Collins was born in Chiswick, London. He was given a toy drum kit for Christmas when he was five. Later, his uncle Mark made him a makeshift one. As Collins grew older these were followed by more complete sets bought by his parents. He practiced by playing alongside the television and radio, and never learned to read and write conventional musical notation; instead, he uses a system he devised himself.

Phil in 1971.

His formal training began at fourteen when he entered Barbara Speake Stage School. He began a career as a child actor and model, and won his first major role as The Artful Dodger in the London production of Oliver!

Despite his early success as an actor, Collins continued to gravitate towards music. While attending Chiswick Community School he formed a band called The Real Thing and later joined The Freehold. With the latter group, he wrote his first song titled "Lying Crying Dying."

Collins's first record deal came as drummer for Flaming Youth who released a single album, Ark 2 in 1969, a concept album inspired by the the moon landing. Ark 2 failed to make much commercial success despite positive critical reviews. After a year, the group split due to internal tensions and the lack of commercial success. 

In 1970, the 19-year old Collins played percussion on the George Harrison song "The Art of Dying." That same year, Collins answered a classified ad in Melody Maker for "..a drummer sensitive to acoustic music, and acoustic twelve-string guitarist." Genesis placed the ad after having already lost three drummers over two albums.

The audition occurred at the home of front man Peter Gabriel's parents. Prospective candidates performed tracks from the group's second album, Trespass released in 1970. Collins arrived early, listened to the other auditions while swimming in Gabriel's parents' pool, and memorised the pieces before his turn.


Afterwards, with Genesis, Collins originally supplied backing vocals for Peter Gabriel, singing lead on only two songs: "For Absent Friends" from 1971's Nursery Cryme album and "More Fool Me" from Selling England by the Pound, which was released in 1973.

Following Gabriel's departure in 1975, Collins became the group's lead singer. By the end of the decade, Genesis's first international hit, "Follow You, Follow Me," demonstrated a drastic change in the band's style and sound. 

Collins is one of only three recording artists (along with Paul McCartney and Michael Jackson) who have sold more than  100 million albums worldwide both as solo artists and (separately) as principal members of a band.

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According to Billboard magazine, when his work with Genesis, his work with other artists, as well as his solo career is totalled, Collins has the most top 40 hits on the Billboard Hot 100 chart for the 1980s. In 2008, Collins was ranked the 22nd most successful artist on the "The Billboard Hot 100 Top All-Time Artists."

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Collins reported losing his hearing in his right ear in 2000 due to a viral infection. In September 2009, it was reported that Collins could no longer play drums, due to a recent operation to repair dislocated vertebrae in his neck.

A statement from Collins on the Genesis band website said, "There isn't any drama regarding my 'disability' and playing drums. Somehow during the last Genesis tour I dislocated some vertebrae in my upper neck and that affected my hands. After a successful operation on my neck, my hands still can't function normally. Maybe in a year or so it will change, but for now it is impossible for me to play drums or piano..."

Collins was appointed a Lieutenant of the Royal Victorian Order (LVO) in 1994 in recognition of his work on behalf of the Prince's Trust.


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