My Summer of Love Virtual Concert

John Denver (December 31, 1943 - October 12, 1997), born Henry John Deutschendorf, Jr., was an American country music/folk singer-songwriter and folk rock musician. He was one of the most popular acoustic artists of the 1970s in terms of record sales,http://www.riaa.com/goldandplatinumdata.php?table=tblTopArt recording and releasing around 300 songs, of which about 200 were composed by him. He was named Poet Laureate of Colorado in 1977. Songs such as "Leaving on a Jet Plane" (1967), "Take Me Home, Country Roads" (1971), "Rocky Mountain High" (1972), "Sunshine on My Shoulders" (1973), "Thank God I'm a Country Boy" (1974), "Annie's Song" (1974), and "Calypso" (1975) are popular worldwide. Denver has been referred to as "The Poet for the Planet", "Mother Nature's Son" (based on The Beatles song he covered) and "A Song's Best Friend".

Marvin Pentz Gay, Jr., better known by his stage name Marvin Gaye (April 2, 1939 ? April 1, 1984imdb.com) was an American singer-songwriter and instrumentalist with a three-octave vocal range.Billboard: Marvin Gaye Starting as a member of the doo-wop group The Moonglows in the late fifties, he ventured into a solo career after the group disbanded in 1960 signing with the Tamla subsidiary of Motown Records. After starting off as a session drummer, Gaye ranked as the label's top-selling solo artist during the sixties.

Due to solo hits including "How Sweet It Is (To Be Loved by You)", "Ain't That Peculiar", "I Heard It Through the Grapevine" and his duet singles with singers such as Mary Wells and Tammi Terrell, he was crowned "The Prince of Motown" and "The Prince of Soul".

Notable for fighting the hit-making but restrictive Motown process in which performers and songwriters and producers were kept separate,Garofalo, pgs. 261?262 Gaye proved with albums like his 1971 Whats Going On and his 1973 Let's Get It On that he was able to produce music without relying on the system, inspiring fellow Motown artists such as Stevie Wonder and Michael Jackson to do the same.

His mid-1970s work including the Let's Get It On and I Want You albums helped influence the quiet storm, urban adult contemporary and slow jam genres. After a self-imposed European exile in the late seventies, Gaye returned on the 1982 Grammy-winning hit, "Sexual Healing" and the Midnight Love album before his death. Gaye was shot dead by his father on April 1, 1984. He was posthumously inducted to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1987.

In 2008, the American music magazine Rolling Stone'' ranked Gaye #6 on its list of The Greatest Singers of All Time,Rolling Stone: 100 Greatest Singers Of All Time, Page 6 and ranked #18 on 100 Greatest Artists of All Time.Rolling Stone: The Immortals, The first 50