In 1959, Berry Gordy Jr. gathered the best musicians from Detroit’s thriving jazz and blues scene to begin cutting songs for his new record company. Over a fourteen year period they were the heartbeat on every hit from Motown’s Detroit era. By the end of their phenomenal run, this unheralded group of musicians had played on more number ones hits than the Beach Boys, the Rolling Stones, Elvis and the Beatles combined – which makes them the greatest hit machine in the history of popular music. They called themselves the Funk Brothers. Forty-one years after they played their first note on a Motown record and three decades since they were all together, the Funk Brothers reunited back in Detroit to play their music and tell their unforgettable story, with the help of archival footage, still photos, narration, interviews, re-creation scenes, 20 Motown master tracks, and twelve new live performances of Motown classics with the Brothers backing up contemporary performers.
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Queen’s performance at Live Aid at Wembley Stadium in 1985 is often regarded as Rock’s greatest live performance of all time. Their set lasted 21 minutes and consisted of “Bohemian Rhapsody”, “Radio Ga Ga”, “Hammer to Fall”, “Crazy Little Thing Called Love”, “We Will Rock You”, and “We Are the Champions”. Mercury and May returned later on to perform a version of “Is This the World We Created?”
Taped at Washington D.C.’s Sidney Harmon Hall, “Whitney Cummings: Money Shot” features Cummings commenting on male strippers, fake boobs and getting spanked in the bedroom, among other things, in this hilarious performance. It’s not every day a funny lady reveals the best way to punish a boyfriend, what it’s really like to date a vampire, the similarities between The Food Network and porn and the “emotional ninja” tactics all women have at their disposal!
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The radical honesty of the books by young adult fiction pioneer Judy Blume changed the way millions of readers understood themselves, their sexuality, and what it meant to grow up, but also led to critical battles against book banning and censorship.
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