Aaron Neville
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Aaron Neville (born January 24, 1941 in New Orleans, Louisiana) is an American soul and R&B singer.
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[edit] Career
Aaron Neville has had a career as a solo artist and also as one of the Neville Brothers. Of mixed African American and Native American heritage, his music also features Cajun influence.
Aaron is noted for his unusual vibrato singing style, which he says was inspired by Gene Autry's yodelling.
With his solo career, Neville is best known for his Grammy-winning 1989 duets with Linda Ronstadt, "Don't Know Much" and "All My Life," as well as his first - and to date his biggest - hit, 1966's "Tell It Like It Is," which was successfully covered by Heart in 1980. His other hits have included "Everybody Plays The Fool," his successful 1991 cover of the 1972 Main Ingredient soul classic; "Don't Take Away My Heaven"; and "Can't Stop My Heart From Loving You (The Rain Song)." Neville's biggest solo successes have been on the Adult Contemporary chart, where "Don't Know Much," "All My Life," and "Everybody Plays The Fool" all reached Number One.
Neville's son Ivan Neville is also a musician and released an album, If My Ancestors Could See Me Now, in 1988, which yielded a Top 40 hit with "Not Just Another Girl." Ivan has also performed with the Rolling Stones and Bonnie Raitt, and played bass for Keith Richards on his first solo tour.
[edit] References In Pop Culture
Neville—his high pitched, dramatic singing style in particular, as well as his penchant for Cocoa butter moisturizer—is parodied on Saturday Night Live, portrayed by Horatio Sanz. One example is on the February 19, 2005 episode, in which "Judge Aaron Neville" sings his verdicts and repeatedly applies cocoa butter moisturizer to his skin. He was also parodied on Family Guy when Peter bought an Aaron Neville megaphone which transformed his voice into Neville's singing style. He has also been parodied on Scrubs. In episode #305 "My Lucky Night" Dr. Chris Turk imitates Neville's singing voice into a tape recorder. Standup comedian Pablo Francisco also does an impersonation of Neville, claiming his voice sounds like someone "trying to find a radio station".
In August 2005 his home in New Orleans was destroyed by Hurricane Katrina; he evacuated to Memphis, Tennessee before the hurricane hit. Neville performed Randy Newman's "Louisiana 1927" during NBC's A Concert for Hurricane Relief on September 2, 2005.
In 2006, Neville sang The Star-Spangled Banner, alongside Aretha Franklin at Super Bowl XL in Detroit.
Aaron signed to SonyBMG's new Burgundy Records label in late 2005 and recorded an album of great classic soul songs by Otis Redding, Marvin Gaye, Curtis Mayfield, Sam Cooke and others for Bring It On Home…The Soul Classics, released on September 19th, 2006. The album, produced by Stewart Levine, features collaborations between Aaron and Chaka Khan, Mavis Staples, Chris Botti, David Sanborn, Art Neville, and others. The album's first single was a remake of The Impressions' 1963 classic "It's All Right."
Aaron made a guest appearance on an episode of the soap opera The Young and the Restless on October 27, 2006<ref name="young">Aaron Neville To Perform on 'The Young & The Restless. Retrieved on 2006-10-27.</ref>. He sang the classic hits "Stand By Me" and "Ain't No Sunshine", from his new album, Bring It On Home…The Soul Classics.
[edit] Trivia
Aaron Neville has a holy cross tatooed on his left cheek as well as others on more conventional, covered parts of his body.
Neville is a practicing Roman Catholic with a deep, undying devotion to St. Jude, whom he credits with "saving" his life through his most difficult times.
[edit] Solo hit singles
- 1966 "Tell It Like It Is" US #2 (R&B #1)
- 1967 "She Took You for a Ride" US #92
- 1989 "Don't Know Much" (with Linda Ronstadt) US #2 (AC #1) <GOLD>, UK #2
- 1990 "All My Life" (with Linda Ronstadt) US #11 (AC #1), UK #96
- 1990 "When Something is Wrong With My Baby" (with Linda Ronstadt) US #78 (AC #5)
- 1990 "Bird On a Wire" (with the Neville Brothers) US AC #31
- 1991 "Everybody Plays the Fool" US #8 (AC #1)
- 1991 "Somewhere Somebody" US AC #6
- 1992 "Close Your Eyes" (with Linda Ronstadt) US AC #38
- 1993 "Don't Take Away My Heaven" US #56 (AC #4)
- 1993 "The Grand Tour" US #90
- 1993 "Don't Fall Apart On Me Tonight" US AC #26
- 1994 "Even If My Heart Would Break" (with Kenny G) US #122 (AC #28)
- 1995 "Can't Stop My Heart from Loving You (The Rain Song)" US #99 (AC #23)
- 1996 "Crazy Love" (with Robbie Robertson) US AC #25
- 1997 "Say What's In My Heart" US AC #26
- 2006 "It's All Right"
[edit] See also
[edit] Band members
- Aaron Neville
- Art Neville
- Charles Neville
- Cyril Neville
- Ivan Neville
[edit] References
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