Morality Consists In The Motives...

There once lived a great mathematician in a village outside Ujjaini in India. He was often called by the local king to advice on matters related to the economy. His reputation had spread as far as Taxila in the North and Kanchi in the South.

So it hurt him very much when the village headman told him, “You may be a great mathematician who advises the king  on economic matters but your son does not know the value of gold or silver.”

The mathematician called his son and asked, “What is more valuable - gold or silver?”

“Gold,” said the son.

“That is correct. Why is it then that the village headman makes fun of you, claims you do not know the value of gold or silver? He teases me every day. He mocks me before other village elders as a father who neglects his son. This hurts me. I feel everyone in the village is laughing behind my back because you do not know what is more valuable, gold or silver. Explain this to me, son.”

So the son of the mathematician told his father the reason why the village headman carried this impression:

“Every day on my way to school, the village headman calls me to his house. There, in front of all village elders, he holds out a silver coin in one hand and a gold coin in other. He asks me to pick up the more valuable coin. I pick the silver coin. He laughs, the elders jeer, everyone makes fun of me. And then I go to school. This happens every day. That is why they tell you I do not know the value of gold or silver.”

The father was confused. His son knew the value of gold and silver, and yet when asked to choose between a gold coin and silver coin always picked the silver coin.

 “Why don’t you pick up the gold coin?” he asked.

In response, the son took the father to his room and showed him a box. In the box were at least a hundred silver coins. Turning to his father, the mathematician’s son said, “The day I pick up the gold coin the game will stop. They will stop having fun and I will stop making money.”

Being sure dosen't mean being right...

A woman was waiting at an airport one night
With several long hours before her flight
She hunted for a book in the airport shop
Bought a bag of cookies and found a place to drop
She was engrossed in her book but happened to see
That the man beside her as bold as could be
Grabbed a cookie or two from the bag between
Which she tried to ignore to avoid a scene
She munched cookies and watched the clock
As this gutsy cookie thief diminished her stock
She was getting more irritated as the minutes ticked by
Thinking "If I wasn't so nice I'd blacken his eye"
With each cookie she took he took one too
And when only one was left she wondered what he'd do
With a smile on his face and a nervous laugh
He took the last cookie and broke it in half
He offered her half as he ate the other
She snatched it from him and thought "Oh brother
This guy has some nerve and he's also rude
Why he didn't even show any gratitude"
She had never known when she had been so galled
And sighed with relief when her flight was called
She gathered her belongings and headed for the gate
Refusing to look back at the thieving ingrate
She boarded the plane and sank in her seat
Then sought her book which was almost complete
As she reached in her baggage she gasped with surprise
There was her bag of cookies in front of her eyes
"If mine are here" she moaned with despair
"Then the others were his and he tried to share"
"Too late to apologize she realized with grief"
That she was the rude one, the ingrate, the thief
                                                             - A Poem by Valerie Cox

A king was passing through a small town, and he saw indications of amazing marksmanship everywhere.

Trees, barns, walls and fences had circles painted on them with a bullet hole in the exact center.

He asked to see this unusual marksman.

That turned out to be a ten year old child.

"This is incredible," said the King in wonder. "How do you make the hole right at the center of all the circles so perfectly?"

"Easy!" was the answer. "I shoot first and draw the circle later."

We get our conclusions first and build our premises around them later. We listen not to discover, but to find something that confirm our own thoughts. We argue, not to find truth, but to vindicate our thinking

Club 99 ...

Once upon a time, there lived a King who, despite of his luxurious lifestyle, was neither happy nor content.
One day, the King came upon a servant who was singing happily while he worked. This fascinated the King; why was he, the Supreme Ruler of the Land, unhappy and gloomy, while a lowly servant had so much joy. The King asked the servant, 'Why are you so happy?'
The man replied, 'Your Majesty, I am nothing but a servant, but my family and I don't need too much - just a roof over our heads and warm food to fill our tummies.'
The King was not satisfied with that reply. Later in the day, he sought the advice of his most trusted advisor.
After hearing the King's woes and the servant's story, the advisor said, 'Your Majesty, I believe that the servant has not been made part of The Club 99.'
'The Club 99? And what exactly is that?' the King inquired.
The advisor replied, 'Your Majesty, to truly know what The Club 99 is, place 99 Gold coins in a bag and leave it at this servant's doorstep.' 
The King did as advised by his advisor.
When the servant saw the bag, he took it into his house. When he opened the bag, he let out a great shout of joy. So many gold coins! He began to count them. After several counts, he was at last convinced that there were 99 coins. He wondered, 'What could’ve happened to that last gold coin? Surely, no one would leave 99 coins!'  He looked everywhere he could, but that final coin was elusive. Finally, exhausted he decided that he was going to have to work harder than ever to earn that gold coin and complete his collection.
From that day, the servant's life was changed. He was overworked, horribly grumpy, and castigated his family for not helping him make that 100th gold coin. He even stopped singing while he worked.
Witnessing this drastic transformation, the King was puzzled. When he sought his advisor's help, the advisor said, 'Your Majesty, the servant has now officially joined The Club 99.'
He continued, 'The Club 99 is a name given to those people who have  enough to be happy but are never contented, because they're always  yearning and striving for that extra 1, saying to themselves: 'Let me  get that one final thing and then I will be happy for life.'
We have so much to be thankful for and we can live with very little in our lives, but the minute we are given something bigger and better, we want even more! We are not the same happy contented person we used to be, we want more and more and by wanting more and more we don’t realize the price we pay for it. We lose our sleep, our happiness; we work a lot but stop enjoying that; we hurt the people around us just as a price to pay for our growing needs and desires. That is what joining The 99 Club is all about. It is hard to contend against one's heart's desire; for whatever it wishes to have it buys/earns then at the cost of soul and peace, and we stop living life then.  Until you make peace with what we do, what we have and who we are, we'll never be content and happy. Who is rich? One that is content. And who is that? - Everybody, Anybody or Nobody?

Give a closure look before say "No"

There was a wealthy man who wanted to give away $1,000,000 to a stranger who was willing to receive it.

He asked his assistant to carry a brief case containing $1,000,000 cash and to go out one night to knock at doors to offer the money to anyone who was willing to open their door and listen to him.

The assistant did exactly as his employer instructed.

But to his surprise he received almost the same respond from all the people whose doors he knocked. All of them turn him away without giving him a chance to explain about his mission.

Some of them said, “Sorry, I am not interested in anything that you are offering.”

While others said, “I am not interested in buying what you are selling.”

Some said, “The owner is not home”.

Whatever their reasons they all missed out on the opportunity to have the $1 million.

Most of us miss our big break or opportunity because we have a “closed mind” and do not give ourselves a chance to have a closer look at what is being presented to us. If it does not look good, and it does not fit with our present belief, we never give it another look. We turn it down and say, “This will never work, or this is not for me as I can't take that much risk and pay the price or it's just like another boring work”. Opportunity is as scarce as oxygen, we fairly breathe it and do not know it. And remember, opportunities are never lost; someone will take the one you miss.

In 1936, India was playing a cricket match against England. The English team was fielding. Alf Gower was the bowler.

In his third ball Gower came running and instead of throwing the ball towards the batsman, he kept on running. He passed the umpire, pitch and the spectators and went straight into the pavilion with the ball still clutched in his hand.

Later, it was found that the poor bowler had suddenly felt the urge to go to the toilet so badly that he had no time even to hand the ball over to anyone else.

Its YOU who can change YOU

One day all the employees reached office and saw a big notice on the door :"The person who had been hindering your growth passed away yesterday.You are requested to join the funeral & prayers which have been organized in the gym".

At the start, all were sad for the death of one of their colleague, but after a while they started getting curious to know who it was that hindered their growth.

The curiosity in the gym grew such that security agents were ordered to control the crowd within the room.

More the people reached the coffin, more the excitement heated up.

Everyone thought: "Who could this be? Who was hindering my progress?".

One by one the thrilled employees got closer to the coffin, and when they looked inside it they suddenly became speechless. They stood nearby the coffin, shocked and in silence, as if someone had touched the deepest part of their soul.

There was a mirror inside the coffin: everyone who looked inside it could see himself.There was also a sign next to the mirror that said: "There is only one person who is capable to set limits to your growth: it is YOU."

You are the only person who can revolutionize your life. You are the only person who can influence your happiness, your realization and your success. You are the only person who can help yourself. Your life does not change when your boss changes, when your friends change, when your partner changes, when your environment changes, when your company changes. Your life changes when YOU change, when you go beyond your limiting beliefs, when you realize that you are the only one responsible for your life.

A Different Approach

Three bus drivers were applying for a job in a hilly region. After their references had been checked, this question was put to each one: "How safely could you drive a bus around a sharp hill curve over a deep precipice?"

The first man said he could drive within a foot of the outer edge and do so with complete assurance.

The second man stated firmly that he could do better than that. He could drive the rim of the wheel half over the edge with ease. He could gauge, he said, the width of the bus down to the smallest fraction.

The third man used a different approach: "I don't know how close I could come to the edge," he said hesitantly, "but I'd keep as far away from it as I could!"

The third man got the job!

If you want to do great things, make sure to distinguish between what is daring and what is reckless.

To hear the unheard...

Back in the third century AD China, King Ts'ao sent his son, prince T'ai to study under the great master Pan Ku. When the prince arrived at the temple, the master sent him alone to the Ming-Li forest. After one year, the prince was to return to the temple to describe the sound of the forest. When T'ai returned, Pan Ku asked him to describe all that he could hear.

"I could hear the cuckoos sing, the leaves rustle, the hummingbirds hum, the bees buzz, and the wind whisper and holler," replied the prince.

The master told him to go back to the forest to listen to what more he could hear.

For days, the prince sat in the forest listening. Then he started to discern faint sounds unlike those he had ever heard before. A feeling of enlightenment enveloped the boy. When he returned, the master asked him what more he had heard.

"I could hear the sound of flowers opening, the sound of the sun warming the earth, and the sound of the grass drinking the morning dew," he replied.

The master nodded approvingly. "To hear the unheard," he said, "is a necessary discipline to be a good ruler. For only when a ruler has learned to listen closely to the people's hearts,hearing their feelings un-communicated, pains unexpressed, and complaints not spoken of, can he meet the true needs of his citizens." - From the column Happiness@Work by Prof Srikumar Rao in Corporate Dossier, The Economic Times, March 12, 2012

You can't hide bad intention..

Once upon a time a poor old woman was walking from one village to another, carrying a bundle on her head. Unable to lift it easily, she rested every now and then. A horseman passed by. The old woman requested him to carry the bundle on the horseback till next village.

He refused saying, "You'll walk slowly and delay me and I've a long way to go."

After a short distance, the horseman thought maybe there was something valuable in the bundle and he could actually run away with it. So he he went back and told her to give him the bundle.

The old woman refused.

The horseman got angry and said, "Just a few minutes ago you wanted me to carry it and now you refuse! What has changed your mind?"

With a smile the old woman replied, "The same thing changed my mind that changed your mind!" and continued walking on.

One can't hide bad intentions as it strikes everywhere even to the careless, the most stupid thinker.

Take PRIDE of your work

A Professor was on a three-months visit to a foreign university. He was given an office, and also the services of a typist  whenever he needed one.

Once he wrote a manuscript by hand, and got it typed by the typist.

The Professor proofread the typed manuscript  and found one spelling mistake. He asked the typist to correct it. The typist retyped the whole sheet of paper, and gave it to the Professor.

The Professor was surprised that the lady had typed the whole sheet for the sake of correcting just one mistake. He remarked that she could have corrected just that one mistake instead of retyping the whole sheet.

The typist remarked: I do not do that. My initials (D.H. for Debbie Huygen)  are there at the bottom of every page.

The Professor was moved by the fact that the typist took such pride in her work.

The most important thing to do in life is to define our attitude towards our own work. Taking great pride in doing work well every time is one of the important elements of our attitude towards it. No one has a greater asset for his/her business than a person's pride in his/her work. Let's focus all our thoughts upon the work at hand and do it well. Work and self-worth are the two factors in pride that interact with each other and never let one suffer because of the other. Pride also prevents us from doing just enough to get by. If we know that everything we do at work has our name and signature on it, then we will give it our best shot and nothing less. Then our work will speak for itself and about us. Also, one of the strongest, lifelong, reliable motivation is the joy and pride that grow from knowing that we've just done something as well as we can do it. There is a special sense of satisfaction, a pride in doing a work which is well rounded, full, exact, complete in its parts. People may forget how fast we did a job, but they remember how well we did it.  Let us always take PRIDE in what we do and do it well every time.

Having 'peace of mind' is easy

Once Buddha was walking from one town to another town with a few of his followers. While they were travelling, they happened to pass a small water body. They stopped there and Buddha told one of his disciples, “I am thirsty. Do get me some water from that water body.”

The disciple walked up to the water body. When he reached there and was about to collect the water, right at that moment, a bullock cart started crossing through it. As a result, the water became very muddy, very turbid.

The disciple thought, “How can I give this muddy water to Buddha to drink!”

So he came back and told Buddha, “The water in there is very muddy. I don’t think it is fit to drink.”

After about half an hour, again Buddha asked the same disciple to go back there and get him some water to drink.

The disciple obediently went back. This time he found that the water body had absolutely clear water in it. The mud had settled down and the water above it looked fit to be had. So he collected some water in a pot and brought it to Buddha.

Buddha looked at the water, and then he looked up at the disciple and said, “See what you did to make the water clean. You let it be ... and the mud settled down on its own – and you got clear water... Your mind is also like that. When it is disturbed, just let it be. Give it a little time. It will settle down on its own and peace would be restored. You don’t have to put in any effort to calm it down. It will happen. It is effortless.”

What did Buddha emphasize here? He said, “It is effortless.” Having 'peace of mind' is not a strenuous job; it is an effortless process. When there is peace inside you, that peace permeates to the outside. It spreads around you and in the environment, such that people around start feeling that peace and grace

Attack the smaller problems first...

The great Maharana Pratap (a King in medieval India) had just been defeated by the Mughals in one of his attempts to capture a key fort. He was forced to wander around the forests in disguise while he attempted to recruit people into his army.

One day, around lunch time, he found a small hut. The hungry King went and knocked on the door. An old woman appeared. She didn't recognize the visitor as Maharana, as he had disguised himself.

Maharana Pratap asked the old lady if she could spare him some food for lunch.

The lady was delighted to have guest and welcomed him in and offered to serve him lunch. She brought out a plate and served him khichdi (An Indian preparation made from rice and lentils). The hungry king plunged his hand in the center of the plate but ended up burning his fingers!

The old lady started laughing.

The king looked up and asked, "You find it amusing that I am in pain?"

To which she replied saying, "Oh no! Please do not mistake me so! I was just thinking to myself that you are no better than the great Maharana Pratap himself!".

To this, Maharana asked, "what have I done that reminds you of that unfortunate King?".

She replied, "He tried to take over a key fort, just like how you tried to pick hot khichdi from the center of the plate. That is why he lost the battle and now you have burnt your fingers. When served with a plate full of hot khichdi, you must tackle your food from the edge of the plate as it would have cooled more there than the center. From the edges, you must work inside if you want to keep your fingers from getting burnt. This applies not just to eating habits. Everywhere in life, you will find this useful.

For example, if the great Maharana, instead of attacking the key fort first, had attacked and taken over the smaller forts in the surrounding region, the key fort would be left defenseless by the time he finally got there. Instead, the great Maharana seems to have made the mistake of plunging his hand in the center of the plate."

The Maharana got more than a filling meal that afternoon in the old lady's hut. He later went on to capture the key fort, of course, after bringing down the smaller ones in the region.

Attacking the smaller problems in life before taking on the bigger challenges doesn't make you any lesser of a person. It will in fact, help you achieve success in everything you do in life.

Ring the bell till its ringing...

A water bearer in China had two large pots, each hung on the ends of a pole which he carried across his neck. One of the pots had a crack in it, while the other pot was perfect and always delivered a full portion of water. At the end of the long walk from the stream to the House, the cracked pot arrived only half full. For a full two years this went on daily, with the bearer delivering only one and a half pots full of water to his house.

Of course, the perfect pot was proud of its accomplishments, Perfect for which it was made. But the poor cracked pot was ashamed of its own imperfection. And miserable that it was able to accomplish only half of what it had been made to do.

After two years of what it perceived to be a bitter failure, it spoke to the water bearer one day by the stream. "I am ashamed of myself, and I want to apologize to you. I have been able to deliver only half my load because this crack in my side causes water to leak out all the way back to your house. Because of my Flaws, you have to do all of this work, and you don't get full value from your efforts," the pot said. 

The bearer said to the pot, "Did you notice that there were flowers only on your side of the path, but not on the other pot's side? That's because I have always known about your flaw. So I planted flower seeds on your side of the path, and every day while we walk back, you've watered them. For two years I have been able to pick these beautiful flowers to decorate the table. Without you being just the way you are, there would not be this beauty to grace the house?


Each of us has our own unique flaws. We're all cracked pots. But it's the cracks and flaws we each have that make our lives together so very interesting and rewarding. We've just got to take each person for what they are, and look for the good in them. Blessed are the flexible, for they shall not be bent out of shape. Unless we accept our faults we will most certainly doubt our virtues. Even the best needles are not sharp at both ends, good gardens have some weeds, the best diamonds and perfectly seeming beauties have some flaws. Genius is more often found in a cracked pot than a whole one. Remember to appreciate all the different people in our life.

Look at the other side...

A father was reading a magazine and his little daughter every now and then distracted him. To keep her busy, he tore one page on which was printed the map of the world.

He tore it into pieces and asked her to go to her room and put them together to make the map again. He was sure she would take the whole day to get it done. But the little one came back within minutes with perfect map.

When he asked how she could do it so quickly, she said, "Oh Dad, there is a man's face on the other side of the paper. I made the face perfect to get the map right."

She ran outside to play leaving her father surprised.

Life keeps on giving us challenges but it is on us to tackle and handle it in the best way we think we can. The most important thing is to look, listen, think and understand about the other sides and then handle things and do them the best way we can. If it is too fast then may be in slowing it down, if too rigid then may be in being flexible, if too far or long them may be near by or short, if too free then may be in some restriction, if too complex then may be in simplicity... and vice-verse. There are more than one way to solve a problem and there may be something better on the other side to solve it. There is always the other side to whatever we experience in this world. Whenever we come across a challenge or a puzzling situation, always look at the other side. You will be surprised to see an easy way to tackle the problem.

Be Confident !!!

Henry was called upon to recite in front of the class. He had hardly begun when the teacher interrupted with an emphatic, “No!”

He started over and again the teacher thundered, “No!” Humiliated, Henry sat down.

The next boy rose to recite and had just begun when the teacher shouted, “No!”

This student, however, kept on with the recitation until he completed it.

As he sat down, the teacher replied, “Very good!” Henry was irritated. ”I recited just as he did,” he complained to the teacher.

But the teacher replied, “It is not enough to know your lesson, you must be sure. When you allowed me to stop you, it meant that you were uncertain. If the world says, ‘No!’ it is your business to say, ‘Yes!’ and prove it.

Henry Ward Beecher was a prominent congregationalist clergyman, social reformer, abolitionist, and speaker in the mid to late 19th century. When he was a young boy in school, he learned above lesson in self-confidence which he never forgot. The world will say, ‘No!’ in a thousand ways. ‘No! You can’t do that.’ ‘No! You are wrong.’ ‘No! You are too old.’‘No! You are too young.’ ‘No! You are too weak.’ ‘No! It will never work.’ ‘No! You don’t have the education.’ ‘No! You don’t have the background.’ ‘No! You don’t have the money.’ ‘No! It can’t be done.’  And each ‘No!’ you hear has the potential to erode your confidence bit by bit until you quit all together.  Though the world says, ‘No!’ to you today, you should be determined to say, ‘Yes!’ and prove it! ” And remember, when someone tells you 'No' time and again, it doesn't mean you can't do it, it simply means you can't do it with him/her. Because of lack of self-confidence, too many people overvalue what they are not and undervalue what they are. Are you one of those? - certainly not. Just look inward. Your self-confidence is always  there awaiting your attention to take you on an amazing journey of success.

The Beatles

The Beatles were an English rock band formed in Liverpool in 1960. They became one of the most commercially successful and critically acclaimed acts in the history of popular music. The band's best-known lineup consisted of John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison, and Ringo Starr. Rooted in skiffle and 1950s rock and roll, the group later utilised many genres, ranging from pop ballads to psychedelic rock, often incorporating classical and other elements, in innovative ways. In the early 1960s, their enormous popularity first emerged as "Beatlemania", but as their songwriting grew in sophistication, they came to be perceived by many fans and cultural observers as an embodiment of the ideals shared by the era's sociocultural revolutions.
The Beatles built their reputation playing clubs in Liverpool and Hamburg over a three-year period from 1960. Moulded into a professional act by manager Brian Epstein, the creativity of producer George Martin enhanced their musical potential. They gained popularity in the United Kingdom after their first single, "Love Me Do", became a modest hit in late 1962. They acquired the nickname the "Fab Four" as Beatlemania grew in Britain over the following year, and by early 1964 they had become international stars, leading the "British Invasion" of the United States pop market. The group toured extensively around the world until August 1966, when they performed their final commercial concert. From 1966 on, they produced what many critics consider their finest material, including the innovative and widely influential albums Revolver (1966), Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band (1967), The Beatles (1968), and Abbey Road (1969). After their break-up in 1970, the ex-Beatles each found success in individual musical careers. Lennon was murdered in 1980, and Harrison died of cancer in 2001. McCartney and Starr remain active.
The Beatles are the best-selling band in history, with sales of over one billion units estimated by EMI Records. They have had more number-one albums on the British charts and sold more singles in the UK than any other act. According to the RIAA, as of 2012 they have sold 177 million units in the US, more than any other artist, and in 2008, they topped Billboard magazine's list of the all-time most successful Hot 100 artists. As of 2012, they hold the record for most number-one hits on the Hot 100 chart with 20. They have received 7 Grammy Awards from the American National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences, an Academy Award for Best Original Song Score and 15 Ivor Novello Awards from the British Academy of Songwriters, Composers and Authors. They were collectively included in Time magazine's compilation of the 20th century's 100 most influential people.

Roger Whittaker

Roger Whittaker (born 22 March 1936) is an Anglo-Kenyan singer-songwriter and musician. His music can be described as easy listening. He is best known for his baritone singing voice and trademark whistling ability. American audiences are most familiar with his 1970 hit "New World in the Morning" and his 1975 hit "The Last Farewell," the latter of which is his only single to hit the Billboard Hot 100 (it made the Top 20) and also hit #1 on the Adult Contemporary chart.

Neil Diamond

Neil Leslie Diamond (born January 24, 1941) is an American singer-songwriter with a career spanning over five decades from the 1960s until the present.
As of 2001, Diamond had sold over 115 million records worldwide including 48 million in the United States alone. He is considered to be the third most successful adult contemporary artist ever on the Billboard chart behind Barbra Streisand and Elton John. His songs have been covered internationally by many performers from various musical genres.
Diamond was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 1984 and into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2011. Additionally, he received the Sammy Cahn Lifetime Achievement Award in 2000 and in 2011 was an honoree at the Kennedy Center Honors. He has had eight number one hit singles: "Cracklin Rosie", "Song Sung Blue", "Desiree", "You Don't Bring Me Flowers", "Love on the Rocks", "America", "Yesterday's Songs", and "Heartlight".
Diamond continues to record and release new material and maintains an extensive touring schedule as well.

Henry Mancini

Enrico Nicola "Henry" Mancini (April 16, 1924 – June 14, 1994) was an American composer, conductor and arranger, best remembered for his film and television scores. He won a record number of Grammy Awards, plus a posthumous Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award in 1995. His best-known works include the jazz-idiom theme to The Pink Panther film series ("The Pink Panther Theme") and the theme to the Peter Gunn television series. Mancini had a long collaboration with the film director Blake Edwards and won numerous Academy Awards for the songs in Edwards films including "Moon River" from Breakfast at Tiffany's, "Days of Wine and Roses" and for the score to Victor Victoria.

Harry Belafonte

Harold George "Harry" Belafonte, Jr. (born March 1, 1927) is an American singer, songwriter, actor and social activist. He was dubbed the "King of Calypso" for popularizing the Caribbean musical style with an international audience in the 1950s. Belafonte is perhaps best known for singing "The Banana Boat Song", with its signature lyric "Day-O". Throughout his career he has been an advocate for civil rights and humanitarian causes and was a vocal critic of the policies of the George W. Bush Administration.

Gilbert Price

Gilbert Price (September 10, 1942 – January 2, 1991) was an American singer (baritone) and actor.
Price was a protégé of Langston Hughes. His first leading role was off-Broadway in Hughes' Jerico-Jim Crow (1964), for which he won a Theatre World Award. Hughes seemed to fall in love with Price. Unpublished love poems by Hughes were addressed to a man he called "Beauty," thought to refer to Price.
Born in New York City of African-American heritage, he graduated from Erasmus Hall High School in 1960, where he stood out for both his talent and gentle, easygoing manner. Price made guest appearances on several television talk and variety shows including The Ed Sullivan Show, Red Skelton, and The Merv Griffin Show.
Price also sang oratorios, including Leonard Bernstein's Mass (1971). He died in Vienna, Austria in 1991 of accidental asphyxiation.

Frank Sinatra

Francis Albert "Frank" Sinatra,  (December 12, 1915 – May 14, 1998) was an American singer and film actor.
Beginning his musical career in the swing era with Harry James and Tommy Dorsey, Sinatra became an unprecedentedly successful solo artist in the early to mid-1940s, after being signed to Columbia Records in 1943. Being the idol of the "bobby soxers", he released his first album, The Voice of Frank Sinatra in 1946. His professional career had stalled by the 1950s, but it was reborn in 1953 after he won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his performance in From Here to Eternity.
He signed with Capitol Records in 1953 and released several critically lauded albums (such as In the Wee Small Hours, Songs for Swingin' Lovers, Come Fly with Me, Only the Lonely and Nice 'n' Easy). Sinatra left Capitol to found his own record label, Reprise Records in 1961 (finding success with albums such as Ring-a-Ding-Ding!, Sinatra at the Sands and Francis Albert Sinatra & Antonio Carlos Jobim), toured internationally, was a founding member of the Rat Pack and fraternized with celebrities and statesmen, including John F. Kennedy. Sinatra turned 50 in 1965, recorded the retrospective September of My Years, starred in the Emmy-winning television special Frank Sinatra: A Man and His Music, and scored hits with "Strangers in the Night" and "My Way".
With sales of his music dwindling and after appearing in several poorly received films, Sinatra retired for the first time in 1971. Two years later, however, he came out of retirement and in 1973 recorded several albums, scoring a Top 40 hit with "(Theme From) New York, New York" in 1980. Using his Las Vegas shows as a home base, he toured both within the United States and internationally, until a short time before his death in 1998.
Sinatra also forged a successful career as a film actor, winning the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his performance in From Here to Eternity, a nomination for Best Actor for The Man with the Golden Arm, and critical acclaim for his performance in The Manchurian Candidate. He also starred in such musicals as High Society, Pal Joey, Guys and Dolls and On the Town. Sinatra was honored at the Kennedy Center Honors in 1983 and was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by Ronald Reagan in 1985 and the Congressional Gold Medal in 1997. Sinatra was also the recipient of eleven Grammy Awards, including the Grammy Trustees Award, Grammy Legend Award and the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award.

Four Brothers

The Four Brothers are perhaps the most internationally successful and recognised group to come from Zimbabwe. The members are not literally brothers and at times there have been more than four. They play fast-paced guitar-based pop music with songs sung in the Shona language. Their lead guitar string-plucking sound is reminiscent of the sound of the African mbira instrument and is a style known as 'jit'.
Founded in Zimbabwe (then Rhodesia) in 1977 by Marshall Munhumumwe and Never Mutare with Edward Zulu and Aleck Chipaika, the band gained international recognition in the late 1980’s with UK BBC Radio 1 DJ John Peel being their most well known advocate.
Marshall Munhumumwe was the nephew of Zimbabwean star Thomas Mapfumo.
At the time the Four Brothers formed bands in Rhodesia were not allowed to play traditional African music. The Four Brothers therefore played rock and roll cover versions of well-known artists such as the Beatles. They took up a residency position at the Saratoga bar in Salisbury (now Harare).
After the ‘Chimurenga’, the War of Independence in Zimbabwe, it became possible to again play traditional music. The band’s format and instruments are clearly influenced by western rock and roll but the sound is evidently originating from Africa. The lead guitar is played in such a way as to sound like mbira.
Marshall Munhumumwe wrote most of the band’s songs and music as well as unusually being both the lead singer and drummer. Their first big hit in Zimbabwe, ‘Makorokoto’, celebrated Zimbabwean independence. Makorokoto means ‘celebration’ in the Shona language.
After signing a deal with British record label Cooking Vinyl the band toured the UK and Canada. This apparently brought the band a greater degree of musical freedom enabling them to buy new instruments and to record more.
BBC Radio 1 DJ John Peel championed The Four Brothers in the UK. They recorded four radio sessions for his show between 1988 and 2000. The band played at Peel's surprise 50th birthday party at his home and he selected 'Pasi Pano Pane Zviedzo' as one of his favourite records of all time on the radio show Desert Island Discs in 1990. Peel is often quoted as describing the Four Brothers as "..the best live band in the world".
In 1997 founder member Marshall Munhumumwe suffered a stroke, following a car crash. He was unable to continue to perform with the band and was replaced by Albert Ruwizhi. Munhumumwe died in 2001 at the age of 49 and the following year bass guitarist Never Mutare died. Finally, the last surviving member, Frank Sibanda died peacefully in December 2010.

Elvis Presley

Elvis Aaron Presleya (January 8, 1935 – August 16, 1977) was one of the most popular American singers of the 20th century. A cultural icon, he is commonly known by the single name Elvis. He is often referred to as the "King of Rock and Roll" or simply "the King".
Born in Tupelo, Mississippi, Presley moved to Memphis, Tennessee, with his family at the age of 13. He began his career there in 1954, working with Sun Records owner Sam Phillips, who wanted to bring the sound of African American music to a wider audience. Accompanied by guitarist Scotty Moore and bassist Bill Black, Presley was the most important popularizer of rockabilly, an uptempo, backbeat-driven fusion of country and rhythm and blues. RCA Victor acquired his contract in a deal arranged by Colonel Tom Parker, who would manage the singer for over two decades. Presley's first RCA single, "Heartbreak Hotel", released in January 1956, was a number one hit. He became the leading figure of the newly popular sound of rock and roll with a series of network television appearances and chart-topping records. His energized interpretations of songs, many from African American sources, and his uninhibited performance style made him enormously popular—and controversial. In November 1956, he made his film debut in Love Me Tender.
Drafted into military service in 1958, Presley relaunched his recording career two years later with some of his most commercially successful work. He staged few concerts however, and guided by Parker, proceeded to devote much of the 1960s to making Hollywood movies and soundtrack albums, most of them critically derided. In 1968, after seven years away from the stage, he returned to live performance in a celebrated comeback television special that led to an extended Las Vegas concert residency and a string of profitable tours. In 1973 Presley staged the first concert broadcast globally via satellite, Aloha from Hawaii, seen by approximately 1.5 billion viewers. Prescription drug abuse severely compromised his health, and he died suddenly in 1977 at the age of 42.
Presley is regarded as one of the most important figures of 20th-century popular culture. He had a versatile voice and unusually wide success encompassing many genres, including country, pop ballads, gospel, and blues. He is the best-selling solo artist in the history of popular music. Nominated for 14 competitive Grammys, he won three, and received the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award at age 36. He has been inducted into multiple music halls of fame.

Dan Seals

Danny Wayland "Dan" Seals (February 8, 1948 – March 25, 2009) was an American musician. The younger brother of Seals & Crofts member Jim Seals, he first gained fame as the "England Dan" half of the soft rock duo England Dan and John Ford Coley, which charted nine pop and adult contemporary singles between 1976 and 1980, including the #2 Billboard Hot 100 hit "I'd Really Love to See You Tonight".
After the duo disbanded, Seals began a solo career in country music. Throughout the 1980s and into the early 1990s, he released 16 studio albums and charted more than 20 singles on the country charts. Eleven of his singles reached Number One: "Meet Me in Montana" (with Marie Osmond), "Bop" (also a #42 pop hit), "Everything That Glitters (Is Not Gold)", "You Still Move Me", "I Will Be There", "Three Time Loser", "One Friend", "Addicted", "Big Wheels in the Moonlight", "Love on Arrival", and "Good Times". Five more of Seals' singles also reached Top Ten on the same chart.

Clay Aiken

Clayton Holmes "Clay" Aiken (born November 30, 1978) is an American singer, television personality, actor, producer, author, and activist who began his rise to fame on the second season of the television program American Idol in 2003. RCA Records offered him a recording contract, and his multi-platinum debut album Measure of a Man was released in October 2003. He released four more albums on the RCA label: Merry Christmas with Love (2004), A Thousand Different Ways (2006), and the Christmas EP, All is Well (2006). His fourth studio album (the first album of original material since 2003's Measure of a Man), On My Way Here was released on May 6, 2008.
After the release of On My Way Here, Aiken left RCA and later signed with Decca Records. His first album with Decca, Tried and True, was released June 1, 2010 and his second Steadfast, was released March 26, 2012.
In the years following his American Idol appearance, Aiken has launched ten tours, authored a New York Times best-selling book Learning to Sing: Hearing the Music in Your Life with Allison Glock, and was the executive producer for a 2004 televised Christmas special, A Clay Aiken Christmas and his televised live concert special in 2010 on PBS Tried & True Live!. He has been a frequent talk show guest, particularly on The Tonight Show and Jimmy Kimmel Live. He appeared as a guest star on Scrubs, Drop Dead Diva, 30 Rock and participated in comedy skits on numerous other shows.
Aiken created the National Inclusion Project (formerly the Bubel/Aiken Foundation) in 2003, accepted a UNICEF ambassadorship in 2004, and in 2006 was appointed for a two-year term to the Presidential Committee for People with Intellectual Disabilities.
Aiken made his Broadway debut playing the role of Sir Robin in Monty Python's Spamalot in January 2008.[10] His run ended in May but he rejoined the cast as Sir Robin in September and remained through January 4, 2009.

Chuck Berry

Charles Edward Anderson "Chuck" Berry (born October 18, 1926) is an American guitarist, singer and songwriter, and one of the pioneers of rock and roll music. With songs such as "Maybellene" (1955), "Roll Over Beethoven" (1956), "Rock and Roll Music" (1957) and "Johnny B. Goode" (1958), Chuck Berry refined and developed rhythm and blues into the major elements that made rock and roll distinctive, with lyrics focusing on teen life and consumerism and utilizing guitar solos and showmanship that would be a major influence on subsequent rock music.
Born into a middle-class family in St. Louis, Missouri, Berry had an interest in music from an early age and gave his first public performance at Sumner High School. While still a high school student he served a prison sentence for armed robbery between 1944 and 1947. On his release, Berry settled into married life and worked at an automobile assembly plant. By early 1953, influenced by the guitar riffs and showmanship techniques of blues player T-Bone Walker, he was performing in the evenings with the Johnnie Johnson Trio. His break came when he traveled to Chicago in May 1955, and met Muddy Waters, who suggested he contact Leonard Chess of Chess Records. With Chess he recorded "Maybellene"—Berry's adaptation of the country song "Ida Red"—which sold over a million copies, reaching No. 1 on Billboard's Rhythm and Blues chart. By the end of the 1950s, Berry was an established star with several hit records and film appearances to his name as well as a lucrative touring career. He had also established his own St. Louis-based nightclub, called Berry's Club Bandstand. But in January 1962, Berry was sentenced to three years in prison for offenses under the Mann Act—he had transported a 14-year-old girl across state lines.
After his release in 1963, Berry had several more hits, including "No Particular Place to Go", "You Never Can Tell", and "Nadine", but these did not achieve the same success, or lasting impact, of his 1950s songs, and by the 1970s he was more in demand as a nostalgic live performer, playing his past hits with local backup bands of variable quality. His insistence on being paid cash led to a jail sentence in 1979—four months and community service for tax evasion.
Berry was among the first musicians to be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame on its opening in 1986, with the comment that he "laid the groundwork for not only a rock and roll sound but a rock and roll stance." Berry is included in several Rolling Stone "Greatest of All Time" lists, including being ranked fifth on their 2004 list of the 100 Greatest Artists of All Time. The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame's 500 Songs that Shaped Rock and Roll included three of Chuck Berry's songs: "Johnny B. Goode", "Maybellene", and "Rock and Roll Music". Today – at the age of 85 – Berry continues to play live.

Christopher Cross

Christopher Cross (born Christopher Charles Geppert; May 3, 1951) is an American singer-songwriter from San Antonio, Texas. His debut album earned him five Grammys. He is perhaps best known for his US Top Ten hit songs, "Sailing", "Ride Like the Wind", and "Arthur's Theme (Best That You Can Do)", the last of which he recorded for the film Arthur starring Dudley Moore. "Sailing" earned three Grammy Awards in 1981, while "Arthur's Theme" won the Oscar for Best Original Song in 1981 (with co-composers Burt Bacharach, Carole Bayer Sager and Peter Allen).

Carrie Underwood

Carrie Marie Underwood (born March 10, 1983) is an American country singer, songwriter and actress who rose to fame as the winner of the fourth season of American Idol, in 2005. Underwood has since become a multi-platinum selling recording artist, a winner of several Grammy Awards, Billboard Music Awards and American Music Awards, a Golden Globe Award nominee, a three-time Academy of Country Music and Country Music Association Female Vocalist winner, and a two-time ACM Entertainer of the Year. She is the first-ever female artist to win back-to-back Academy of Country Music (ACM) Awards for Entertainer of the Year (2009/10). Underwood was inducted into and became a member of the Grand Ole Opry in 2008. She was also inducted into the Oklahoma Music Hall of Fame in 2009. Billboard named Underwood Country Music's reigning Queen in 2012.
Her debut album, Some Hearts, was certified seven times platinum and, since February 2006, is the fastest selling debut country album in Nielsen SoundScan history. It is also the best-selling solo female debut album in country music history, since February 2008, and, since March 2011, the best-selling country album of the last 10 years. Some Hearts yielded three number one hits on the Billboard Hot Country Songs and a number one hit on the Billboard Hot 100 Songs. Her second album, Carnival Ride, was released on October 23, 2007. It has sold over 3 million copies as of January 2010, being certified 3 times Platinum, and produced four consecutive number one hits on the Billboard Hot Country Songs. Underwood released her third album, Play On, on November 3, 2009. It has been certified 2 times Platinum by the RIAA and has produced three consecutive number one hits on the Billboard Hot Country Songs. As of March 2012, Underwood has sold over 22 million singles and more than 14 million albums worldwide. As of May 16, 2011, Underwood became the American Idol US Top Earner, selling so far 12.4 million album copies and 19 million digital tracks, along with amassing $66 million in tour revenues, since winning Season 4. Underwood's fourth album, Blown Away, was released on May 1, 2012, has already been certified Gold by the RIAA and delivered a number one hit on the Hot Country Songs chart.
After amassing her 12th number one hit in June 2012, Underwood became the Female Country Artist with the most number one hits on the Billboard Hot Country Songs chart from 1991 to present, breaking her own Guinness Book record of eleven, co-held with Reba McEntire. Underwood is also the only solo Country Artist to have a number one hit on Billboard Hot 100 Songs in the 2000 decade, as "Inside Your Heaven" reached the top of the chart in July 2005. Her album Some Hearts was named the Best Country Album of the 2000 Decade by Billboard, and she's the only Female Artist to appear on the Top 10 of Billboard's Best Country Artists of the 2000 Decade list, ranked at number ten. She was also ranked number 50 on the Artists of the Decade list by Billboard. In June 2011, Rolling Stone magazine ranked Underwood as the number eleven Queen of Pop, based on a lot of criteria from 2009 until 2011. In July 2011, Forbes reported that Underwood earned over $20 million between May 2010 and May 2011.

Bryan Adams

Bryan Adams, OC OBC (born Bryan Guy Adams 5 November 1959) is a Canadian rock singer-songwriter, guitarist, bassist, producer, actor and photographer. For his contributions to music, Adams has many awards and nominations, including 20 Juno Awards among 56 nominations, 15Grammy Award nominations including a win for Best Song Written Specifically for a Motion Picture or Television in 1992. He has also won MTV, ASCAP and American Music awards. In addition, he has won two Ivor Novello Awards for song composition and has been nominated for severalGolden Globe Awards and three times for Academy Awards for his songwriting for films.
Adams was awarded the Order of Canada and the Order of British Columbia for contributions to popular music and philanthropic work via his own foundation, which helps improve education for people around the world.
Adams was inducted into the Hollywood Walk of Fame, with the 2,435th star in March 2011 and Canada's Walk of Fame in 1998, and in April 2006 he was inducted into the Canadian Music Hall of Fame at Canada's Juno Awards. In 2008, Bryan was ranked 38 on the list of All-Time top artists by the Billboard Hot 100 50th Anniversary Charts. On 13 January 2010, he received the Allan Waters Humanitarian Award for his part in numerous charitable concerts and campaigns during his career, and on 1 May 2010 was given the Governor General's Performing Arts Award for his 30 years of contributions to the arts.

Anne Murray

Morna Anne Murray CC ONS (born June 20, 1945) is a multiple award-winning Canadian singer in pop, country and adult contemporary music whose albums have sold over 54 million copies worldwide as of 2012.
Murray was the first Canadian female solo singer to reach #1 on the U.S. charts, and also the first to earn a Gold record for one of her signature songs, "Snowbird" (1970). She is often cited as the woman who paved the way for other Canadian international success stories such as Céline Dion, Sarah McLachlan and Shania Twain. She is also the first woman and the first Canadian to win "Album of the Year" at the Country Music Association Awards for her 1984 album A Little Good News.
Murray has received four Grammy Awards, 24 Juno Awards (she holds the record for the most Junos awarded to an artist), three American Music Awards, three Country Music Association Awards and three Canadian Country Music Association Awards. She has been inducted into the Canadian Country Music Hall of Fame, the Juno Hall of Fame, and The Songwriters Hall of Fame. She is a member of the Country Music Hall of Fame Walkway of Stars in Nashville, and has her own star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in Los Angeles and on Canada's Walk of Fame in Toronto.
In 2011, Billboard ranked her number 10 on their list of the 50 Biggest AC Artists Ever.

Anne Murray - You needed me

John Denver

Henry John Deutschendorf, Jr. (December 31, 1943 – October 12, 1997), known professionally as John Denver, was an American singer/songwriter, activist, and humanitarian. After traveling and living in numerous locations while growing up in his military family, Denver began his music career in folk music groups in the late 1960s. His greatest commercial success was as a solo singer. Throughout his life Denver recorded and released approximately 300 songs, about 200 of which he composed. He performed primarily with an acoustic guitar and sang about his joy in nature, his enthusiasm for music, and relationship trials. Denver's music appeared on a variety of charts including country & western, the Billboard Hot 100, and adult contemporary, in all earning him 12 gold and 4 platinum albums with his signature songs "Sunshine on My Shoulders", "Take Me Home, Country Roads", "Leaving on a Jet Plane", "Rocky Mountain High", "Annie's Song", and "Calypso".
Denver further starred in films and several notable television specials in the 1970s and 1980s. In the following decades he continued to record, but also focused on calling attention to environmental issues, lent his vocal support to space exploration, and testified in front of Congress to protest censorship in music. He is known for his love of the state of Colorado, which he sang about numerous times. He lived in Aspen, Colorado, for much of his life, and influenced the governor to name him Poet Laureate of the state in 1974. The Colorado state legislature also adopted "Rocky Mountain High" as one of its state songs in 2007. He was an avid pilot, and died while flying his personal aircraft at the age of 53. Denver was one of the most popular acoustic artists of the 1970s.

Jim Reeves

James Travis "Jim" Reeves (August 20, 1923 – July 31, 1964) was an American country and popular music singer-songwriter. With records charting from the 1950s to the 1980s, he became well known as a practitioner of the Nashville sound (a mixture of older country-style music with elements of popular music). Known as Gentleman Jim, his songs continued to chart for years after his death. Reeves died at age 40 in the crash of a private airplane. He is a member of both the Country Music and Texas Country Music Halls of Fame.

Jim Reeves - Rosa Rio

Cliff Rechard

Sir Cliff Richard, OBE (born Harry Rodger Webb; 14 October 1940) is a British pop singer, musician, performer, actor, and philanthropist. With his backing group The Shadows, Richard, originally positioned as a rebellious rock and roll singer in the style of Little Richard[1] and Elvis Presley, dominated the British popular music scene in the pre-Beatles period of the late 1950s and early 1960s. His 1958 hit single "Move It" is often described as Britain's first authentic rock and roll song, and John Lennon once claimed that "before Cliff and the Shadows, there had been nothing worth listening to in British music." A conversion to Christianity and subsequent softening of his music later led to a more middle of the road pop image, sometimes venturing into gospel music.

Over a 53-year career, Richard has become a fixture of the British entertainment world, amassing many gold and platinum discs and awards, including three Brit awards and two Ivor Novello awards. He has had more than 130 singles, albums and EPs make the UK Top 20, more than any other artist[4] and holds the record (with Elvis Presley) as the only act to make the UK singles charts in all of its first six decades (1950s–2000s). He has achieved 14 UK No. 1 singles (or 18, depending on the counting methodology) and is the only singer to have had a No. 1 single in the UK in six consecutive decades: the 1950s through to the 2000s (discounting digital downloads and counting only CDs, he had a UK No. 1 single in the 2000s). Richard is the third biggest selling singles artist of all time in the UK, with total sales of over 21 million, and has reportedly sold an estimated 250 million records worldwide.

Richard has never achieved the same impact in the United States despite eight US Top 40 singles, including the million-selling "Devil Woman" and "We Don't Talk Anymore", the latter becoming the first to reach the Hot 100's top 40 in the 1980s by a singer who had been in the top 40 in the 1950s, 1960s, and 1970s. In Canada, Richard achieved moderate success in the 1980s with several albums reaching platinum status. He has remained a popular music, film, and television personality in Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, Northern Europe and Asia, and he retains a following in other countries.

Cliff Richard - Bachelor Boy
Cliff Richard - Summer Holiday
Cliff Richard - Theme For A Dream
Cliff Richard - Young Ones

Andy Williams

Howard Andrew "Andy" Williams (born December 3, 1927) is an American singer who has recorded 18 Gold-[1] and three Platinum-certified albums. He hosted The Andy Williams Show, a TV variety show, from 1962 to 1971, as well as numerous television specials, and owns the Moon River Theatre in Branson, Missouri named after the song "Moon River", with which he is closely identified.

Moon Rever
Born Free
Speak Softly, Love
Try to remember