I remember singing around the house to records that were playing. All kinds of music. And the great James Cleveland was often in our house, and I grew up with his sound as well.
If you came to my house and said, "Well, here's the new Katy Perry record," I would give it a listen, but these records are constructed by producers in production houses with no human beings playing on them and it's interesting, but we grew up with human beings playing on records.
Bobby Darin was one of the first to take black musicians on the road with his band, and there were places that didn't want him to play, and he stood up to it.
I grew up with singers. My father's mother sang opera. My dad was a big band singer. I can't remember a time there wasn't music in the house, so I grew up listening to great songwriters - George Gershwin, Cole Porter - and my grandma was playing opera for me before I was 3.
I didn't want to be a rock and roller. I wanted to be a Bobby Darin because he was the epitome of the performer, the sophisticated.
All of our early hits, 'Danke Schoen' and 'Red Roses,' were produced by Bobby Darin.
I grew up with my brother who is five years older, and so I grew up playing with him and with his friends. Most of the time, I wouldn't play because he didn't want me to play with his friends - I don't know if he was afraid that I was too good for them!
I grew up with Ray Charles playing in the car all the time or playing in the house.
My mother was the only one who encouraged and inspired me for singing. She was singing all the time in the house, playing records also.
My dad is a huge folk music fan, so growing up, there were always records playing in my house. Carole King, James Taylor, Simon and Garfunkel, the Beatles - I grew up with this music, and I was aware of how special this music was to a lot of people.
But one man never laughed. He was a giant among men. He was Bobby Darin and he was my friend.
Yes; my brother Bobby used to distribute records at King Records. I had a job there, too, packing records up and shipping them off. But I always wanted to play sessions at Stax, so I figured out a way to do it.
We grew up without a television, so we constantly had music playing in our house.
At our house, we'd always open presents with our Christmas records playing. 'Little Drummer Boy' was one of my favorites when I was a kid because it was about a kid.
I started with Bobby Darin. He signed me to Capitol when I was 15. I was 14, getting ready to be 15. Then the next encounter I had was with I think Peggy Lee. I sang background with The Blossoms with Darlene Love.
My first memories of music are of my mother playing Dominican music in the house because my parents love to dance. They love to throw parties and dance, so there was a lot Latin music in the house.