Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Entertainment/2008 June 23

= June 23 =

Groups with no line-up changes
Which currently active group has been together the longest time with no line-up changes since it was first formed? Cowboy Junkies formed in 1985 and have had no line-up changes since then. Can any group beat that? --Richardrj talkemail 07:55, 23 June 2008 (UTC)


 * How do you define "currently active". There are many groups from the 50's and 60's that are still on tour.  Is that active?  Are you arbitrarily requiring an album release in the last XX years?  What about a recording contract like the one that Guns 'n' Roses has had for the last, what is it, 15 years without a release? --  k a i n a w &trade; 12:03, 23 June 2008 (UTC)
 * Guns N'Roses don't come into it since they have had numerous line-up changes in their lifetime. I'd be surprised if there are many groups from the 50s and 60s still playing with the same line-up as when they started, but if you can name any, I'm all ears.  As for defining "currently active",  album releases and record deals might help, but it would be on a case-by-case basis.  --Richardrj talkemail 12:27, 23 June 2008 (UTC)
 * ZZ Top. 1969-present. Same line-up, still recording and touring. U2 would be second place as far as I can tell. Kreachure (talk) 14:32, 23 June 2008 (UTC)
 * Cool, looks like we have a winner. Thanks Kreachure. --Richardrj talkemail 15:11, 23 June 2008 (UTC)
 * No problem! I don't think there's another band out there that outlasts ZZ either. Kreachure (talk) 16:28, 23 June 2008 (UTC)


 * I asked about criteria because this came up before. The studio musicians commonly change all the time.  So, the "band" is simply whatever the band considers itself to be.  As such, the Everly Brothers have been a duo since 1956 and have not replaced either one of the brothers.  They have retired and un-retired many times - as recent as a 2004 concert tour.  So, this creates a special class of "band" that easily continues for many years without a lineup change.  What makes it more complicated is solo artists.  Does the lineup for Aretha Franklin change? --  k a i n a w &trade; 18:33, 23 June 2008 (UTC)
 * Well, the spirit of the question makes it fairly obvious to me that something like the Everly Brothers is not what is being sought, no matter how well they fit the definition of a currently active group. Aretha Franklin is not a group, as you're aware, and even if she had used the same backing musicians for her entire career, she wouldn't be what the question was looking for either. --Richardrj talkemail 19:07, 23 June 2008 (UTC)
 * Aretha may not be a whole group, but she's definitely on the chunky side these days. Deor (talk) 05:31, 24 June 2008 (UTC)

The Adicts. 1975 to present. No line-up changes. --Endless Dan 14:16, 25 June 2008 (UTC)

Billy Joel song about a couple getting married young, struggling through life, growing old, something like that...
I can't remember the lyrics, but the melody is stuck in my head, from verse to chorus to the bridge which is a melodic "who-oh, whoa-oh, whoa-ooohh oh oh oh ooohhh". I realize the song I've described is Jack and Diane but I swear it's a different song and it is definitely sung by Billy Joel. It's just I can't find it anywhere. I've searched every lyric database I could find on the man, now it's up to you Wikipedia answer patrons. Please help me! —Preceding unsigned comment added by Beekone (talk • contribs) 14:27, 23 June 2008 (UTC)


 * Scenes from an Italian Restaurant, it's about Brenda and Eddie. -- LarryMac  | Talk  14:35, 23 June 2008 (UTC)


 * And, ummm, we're not Yahoo. hrmph!  -- LarryMac  | Talk  14:37, 23 June 2008 (UTC)


 * StuRat sends LarryMac a bottle of white, a bottle of red, perhaps a bottle of rose instead, for his excellent answer.


 * sorry, Larry. Wow, I totally read those lyrics too, I thought it was too obvious to be the right song... also I didn't read far enough.  Sweet lord, I can finally get this amorphic blob of a song out of my head.  Beekone (talk) 14:41, 23 June 2008 (UTC)


 * Mercy sakes. I was once talked into writing a filk song based on "Scenes from an Italian Restaurant" dealing with a storyline from Due South of all things. It is one of the worst possible songs to use as a base for trying to write a parody song (along with Paul Simon's "You can call me Al", which I also filked). Anyone who's masochistic enough to be interested in such things can probably still find it on my website somewhere...(rummages online)... here, in fact (/selfpromo mode :) Grutness...wha?  00:25, 24 June 2008 (UTC)

You did a great job on "You Can Call Me Al," Grutness. And I loved "Yesterday," too. - AJ, who writes parodies based on her favorite computer game —Preceding unsigned comment added by 71.104.139.75 (talk) 22:44, 25 June 2008 (UTC)
 * Thanks :) Grutness...wha?  02:42, 26 June 2008 (UTC)


 * There are a few very good parodies of each on www.amiright.com, too.209.244.30.221 (talk) 00:03, 29 June 2008 (UTC)

adding name to Tony Awards recipients page
The female actor, Frances De La Tour, won a Tony Award in 2006. However, she is not listed on the Wikipedia page of Tony Award winners which are presented alphabetically. I cannot edit the page, and wouldn't want to mess it up, anyway. Can someone help? Thank you, Karen Johnson/ log-in username is kjpr/ email is (deleted) —Preceding unsigned comment added by Kjpr (talk • contribs) 18:39, 23 June 2008 (UTC)


 * She is listed in 60th Tony Awards. I can't find the specific alphabetical list you mention, do you know the page title?  -- LarryMac  | Talk  19:08, 23 June 2008 (UTC)


 * The "list" might be the Category: Category:Tony Award winners. Look under T for "Tour" instead of D for "De". Does that solve the problem? --tcsetattr (talk / contribs) 19:43, 23 June 2008 (UTC)

Trying to identify a song . . . all I remember is one line and a few notes
There was a song I loved when I was much younger that I'm trying to find now, but I remember almost nothing about it. It would have been on soft-rock/adult contemporary radio stations circa the early 90's. I think the singer was a man or a deep-voiced woman, but the voice isn't that distinct in my memory. The one line I remember at all is repeated regularly throughout the song, at the end of a verse or chorus, and it's something like "Imagine all the people that make the world go round," or "Think of all the people that make the world go round." I know the last five words are "make the world go round." After those five words is a distinctive nine-note piano sequence. I don't know the names of the notes, but without resorting to my own mental imagery I can only say the first five notes present a brief rising and falling sequence with the third note held slightly longer than the others, and the last four notes are short and quick and all the same except for the second to last. So, to approximate, "Duh-dum-DAH-dum-dah, dah-dah-dum-dah." Sorry I've given you so little to work with, but I'd really like to find this song (I'm on a huge nostalgia kick right now) and I have no idea where else to go. - ARFDJ —Preceding unsigned comment added by 71.104.139.75 (talk) 23:58, 23 June 2008 (UTC)
 * Perhaps "people make the world go round", done by the Stylistics, Raven Symone, and Michael Jackson. --jpgordon&#8711;&#8710;&#8711;&#8710; 03:10, 24 June 2008 (UTC)

No. . . that's definitely not it. I've streamed enough of that song on a few sites to know. I'm pretty sure the title is nothing like the line I remember, or I would have found it through Google. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 71.104.139.75 (talk) 22:30, 25 June 2008 (UTC)

common practice period song
There's a documentary that interviewed the player of a common practice period song. He never played it before, but he learned it, and Robert di Niro starred in it when we was a lot younger, when he didn't have gray hair, wrinkles, among other things. The director wanted this player to practice this song until perfect and then at the time of shooting, to surprise Robert di Niro, and thus, his character. Before, the player never knew how to play piano. In the sense, Robert di Niro is with another guy, who was equally surprised and taken aback by the player’s ability as he too did not know the player had been practicing the song.

What is this song?

(The clues I gave may not be EXCATLY right, but I think most of them are, or close to the fact.)68.148.164.166 (talk) 22:09, 23 June 2008 (UTC)


 * Not really enough clues to really begin this one. best idea might just be to go through the discography on the Robert de Niro article (de, not di), and click onto the individual films. Those film articles might discuss the music of the films. Any other clues as to the music? Was it a slow piece, a fast piece, and are you sure it was common practice period music, or just something that sounded like it was intended to be? A first guess, if it's a slow piece that sounds vaguely like CPP, it might be Cavatina, the theme from The Deer Hunter. Grutness...wha?  00:38, 24 June 2008 (UTC)


 * Yes, I know for certain it was a composer who composed this song during that period, maybe Haydn, Chopin, Mozart, etc. etc.68.148.164.166 (talk) 01:08, 24 June 2008 (UTC)


 * Mmmmm. Once Upon a Time in America used part of Gioachino Rossini's The Thieving Magpie... hardly what I'd call a standard piano piece, but could that have been it? (BTW, there's no need to reply on my user talk page - here is fine! :) Grutness...wha?  01:25, 24 June 2008 (UTC)


 * Going back to The Deer Hunter, I remember a scene where a character plays a slow piece by Chopin on the piano. It was set in a bar, and his friends were listening quietly (a but unrealistic, but that's Hollywood for you).  My memory insists it was one of the slower mazurkas (it's been 20 years since I saw it), but according to IMDB, it was the Nocturne in G minor, Op. 15, No. 3.  This confirms that the Nocturne was played by John (played by George Dzundza), in his bar, just before the scene jumps to a Vietnamese jungle.  But I haven’t been able to establish what Dzundza’s pre-Deer Hunter piano-playing skills were, to confirm that he had to learn to play the piano for the movie.  (Oh, it's De Niro, not de Niro, btw).  --  JackofOz (talk) 23:33, 24 June 2008 (UTC)
 * Your last point is interesting, Jack. I always thought that when there is a 'de' in someone's name, it's not capitalised (except at the beginning of a sentence, obviously).  See Lynsey de Paul, for example. Is De Niro an exception?  What is the rule on this? --Richardrj talkemail 12:39, 26 June 2008 (UTC)


 * When it comes to the spelling of personal names, there is no single rule; the person chooses the form they prefer. Some people named "de .." take a lower case de, others takes an upper case De.  As far as I can tell, De Niro is in the latter category.    --  JackofOz (talk) 00:33, 27 June 2008 (UTC)
 * Hmm, interesting. Has he ever expressed this preference in public, to your knowledge?  Or is it just that it normally gets written that way? --Richardrj talkemail 13:34, 27 June 2008 (UTC)