Saturday, July 2, 2022

The living legends of music and their "years active" per Wikipedia

Wikipedia has a "years active" line for entertainers, which I guess is determined by when they first began to pursue their interest in the field that they ended up becoming famous in. 

For example, John Lennon's "Years active" is listed as 1956-1980 -- presumably because he got a guitar and started a band in 1956.  (His retirement from the music business in 1976-1979, to raise his son Sean, is not noted.  Similar years of inactivity are sometimes noted for other artists, however, which reveals that Wikipedia's "years active" is inconsistently applied.) 

Some of these "years active" designations are up for debate.  For example, Bob Dylan's "years active" is listed as "1961-present," and yet there exist recordings from 1959 of Dylan performing (one of them was included on The Bootleg Series Volume 7: No Direction Home album).  So, Dylan's "years active" should be at least "1959-present."  

Other artists may be listed as still "active" when they haven't done much for public consumption in years.  As my friend Matt Seidl noted (when I first posted this list on Facebook), "If Jimmy Page is considered 'active' then we need a new way to describe Robert Plant's prolific post-Zep output."

Therefore the "years active" line is not necessarily error-free and, like the rest of Wikipedia, is not set in stone.

Here are some of the "years active" lines for some notable pop & rock singers and musicians who are still with us (as of July 2, 2022), listed in the order of those who have been active the longest, according to Wikipedia. (The links for each name below are to that person's Wikipedia entry. I checked each of these links today to make sure that the person was still alive.)    

I stopped the list at 1963, so anyone shown as "1964-present" etc., such as Jeff Beck, George Benson, Marianne Faithfull, Donovan, Klaus Voormann or John Sebastian, is NOT listed below.  

So, who have I left out?  Let me know in the comments!

Years active, 1929 to present:
Joe Negri (jazz guitarist)

Years active, 1935 to 1999:
Glynis Johns

Years active, 1936 to present:
Ray Anthony (of the Glenn Miller Orchestra)
Tony Bennett ("years active 1936-2021")

Years active, 1940 to present:
Petula Clark

Years active, 1943 to present:
Rita Moreno

Years active, 1945 to present:
Julie Andrews

Years active, 1946 to present:
Doc Severinsen

Years active, 1947 to present:
Ed Ames
Sonny Rollins ("years active 1947-2014")
Dick Van Dyke

Years active, 1948 to present:
Gladys Knight

Years active, 1949 to present:
Harry Belafonte
Jerry Lee Lewis
Liza Minnelli
Tommy Steele

Years active, 1950 to present:
Burt Bacharach
Charlie Gracie
Shirley Jones
Cleo Laine
Chita Rivera

Years active, 1951 to present:
Frankie Avalon
Quincy Jones
Brenda Lee
Bobby Rush
Leslie Uggams

Years active, 1953 to present:
Shirley Bassey
Buddy Guy
Rolf Harris ("years active 1953-2013")
Frank Ifield
Wanda Jackson
Steve Lawrence ("years active 1953-2019")
Frankie Valli

Years active, 1954 to present:
Pat Boone
Duane Eddy

Years active, 1955 to present:
Paul Anka
Barry Gibb
Smokey Robinson
Peggy Seeger (folk singer)
Dionne Warwick

Years active, 1956 to present:
Freddy Cannon
Micky Dolenz
Art Garfunkel
Engelbert Humperdinck
Johnny Mathis
John Mayall
Willie Nelson
Dolly Parton
Diana Ross
Paul Simon

Years active, 1957 to present:
Herb Alpert
Bill Anderson (country singer)
John Cale
Dave Clark
Dion
Bruce Johnston
Denny Laine
Paul McCartney
Jimmy Page
Robbie Robertson
Neil Sedaka
Ringo Starr
Connie Stevens
Tina Turner ("years active 1957-2009, 2020-present")
Marty Wilde

Years active, 1958 to present:
Joan Baez
Richard Chamberlain (the actor, who also sings; see my note at end of this post)
Chubby Checker
Julio Iglesias
Carole King
Hank Marvin (of The Shadows)
Van Morrison
Nana Mouskouri ("years active 1958-2008, 2011-present")
Graham Nash
Cliff Richard

Years active, 1959 to present:
Judy Collins
Roger Daltrey
John Fogerty
Tommy James (of Tommy James and the Shondells)
Jack Jones
Kris Kristofferson ("years active 1959-2020")
Bobby Vinton ("years active 1959-2015")
Bill Wyman ("years active 1959–1993, 1997–present")

Years active, 1960 to present:
Randy Bachman (of Bachman-Turner Overdrive)
Eric Burdon
Martin Carthy (British folk singer)
Ray Davies
Kiki Dee
Gary Glitter ("years active 1960-2005")
Mick Jagger
Loretta Lynn
Barbara Mandrell ("years active 1960-2000")
Roger McGuinn
Iggy Pop
Keith Richards
Barbra Streisand

Years active, 1961 to present:
Ann-Margret
Judith Durham (of The Seekers)
Bob Dylan [see beginning of this post; should be at least "1959-present"]
Herbie Hancock
Al Jardine
Mike Love
John Paul Jones
Sam Moore (of Sam & Dave)
Randy Newman
Yoko Ono
Bob Seger ("years active 1961-1996, 2000-present")
Brian Wilson
Steve Winwood
Stevie Wonder

Years active, 1962 to present:
Ian Anderson (of Jethro Tull)
Vikki Carr
Clarence Carter
Eric Clapton
Neil Diamond
José Feliciano
Françoise Hardy ("years active 1962-2018")
Elton John
David Marks (early member of the Beach Boys)
Barry McGuire
Peter Noone
Rita Pavone
Tom Paxton
Bobby Sherman ("years active 1962-1997")
Pete Townshend
Robin Trower
Roger Whittaker

Years active, 1963 to present:
Jon Anderson (of Yes)
Charo
Cher
Dave Davies
Mick Fleetwood
David Gilmour
Tom Jones
Jeff Lynne
Ronnie Milsap
Olivia Newton-John
Donny Osmond (his older brothers were active since 1962)
Stephen Stills
Moe Tucker (Velvet Underground drummer, "years active 1963–c. 2007; 2017")
Robert Wyatt ("years active 1963-2014")
Neil Young


NOTE about some omissions from the above list:

Unfortunately Wikipedia doesn't have a "Years active" notation for some artists, such as Ramblin' Jack Elliott and Peter Yarrow, or have only vague dates for others, such as Paul Stookey (listed as active from "1950s-present"). Dean Torrence of Jan & Dean doesn't have his own Wikipedia entry, therefore its unclear of how his own "years active" would be listed (although presumably it would begin around 1958). Some artists who would have been on the list above have unfortunately passed away in 2022, such as Gary Brooker and Ronnie Hawkins.

There were some entries I saw for singers or musicians from, say, the 1940s, who were last active many decades ago, so I left them off the list above. If I had never heard their name before and they hadn't been active in over 40 years, I left them off the list.  

Also I purposely left Pete Best off the list above, despite his name being well-known as the Beatles drummer who got sacked before they became famous. Wikipedia has his years active as "1959–68, 1988–present," but really his music career was basically over by the mid-1960s, so I left him off the list.  

I included several actor-singers in the list above, but I tried to limit it to actors who were known to sing in musicals.  For this reason I left William Shatner off the list, despite his "singing" side-career.  (I did include Richard Chamberlain above, though.)