Died On This Date (October 8, 2011) Roger Williams / The Pianist To The Presidents
themusicsover Roger Williams (Born Louis Weertz)
October 1, 1924 – October 8, 2011
Roger Williams was a popular American pianist who released several hit instrumental records during the ’50s, ’60s, and ’70s. Williams reportedly began playing the piano at age 3, and except for a break to give boxing a respectable shot during his late teens, Williams devoted his life to the instrument. After majoring in piano in college – which he was expelled from, Williams enlisted in the US Navy during World War II where he earned for his Bachelor’s degree. After being discharged, he went on to earn his Master’s, and then moved to New York City to study at famed music school, Julliard. It was while filling in one night for an absent performer on Arthur Godfrey’s Talent Scouts, Williams was discovered and signed to Kapp Records. In 1955, he released “Autumn Leaves” which is still the only piano instrumental to ever reach #1 on the Billboard pop charts. The record went on to sell over 2 million copies. His next big hit came in 1966 with “Born Free,” the theme song to the popular motion picture of the same name. Other hits included “Near You,” “The Impossible Dream,” and “The Theme From Somewhere In Time.” Over a career that spanned more than 56 years, he released over 116 albums. Always a popular guest at the White House, Williams performed for nine different Presidents, beginning with Harry S. Truman. His last was at a 2008 luncheon hosted by Laura Bush. As reported by the Los Angeles Daily News, Roger Williams was 87 when he passed away on October 8, 2011. He had been suffering from pancreatic cancer.
What You Should Own
David Hess was a singer, songwriter and actor whose writing credits include “Come Along” (
Piet Noordijk was a respected Dutch saxophonist who, over a career that stretched several decades played in both orchestras and big bands. The list of groups he played with includes the Skymasters, Malando, the Ramblers, and the Metropole Orchestra. In 1965, Noordijk was presented with the Boy Edgar Prize, the highest achievement for a Dutch jazz musician, and in 1987, he won the Bird Award which is also bestowed upon only the best in his field. He went on to win other awards as well. Over the course of his career, Noordijk is known to have played with the likes of 
It could be argued that Steve Jobs made the biggest impact on the music industry since Thomas Edison invented the phonograph. Through Apple Inc., the company he co-founded with Steve Wozniak and Mike Markkula in 1976, Jobs produced a line of computer products that paved the way for personal computing, personal entertainment, and communications as we now know it today. As far back as the late ’70s, Apple’s consumer products successfully found their markets – their early Apple II Series was one of the first commercially successful lines of personal computers in history. Today, the company boasts over 300 retail outlets across the globe and is the largest publicly traded company in the world by market. In November of 2001, Apple announced the release of the iPod, a small device that could literally allow you to carry your entire CD collection in your pocket – or at least the digital files that were encoded on the discs. Audiobooks, games and movies soon followed. With Apple’s iTunes software, music lovers could now transfer the music files from a CD or download music files from the internet onto their iPods and carry them with them like earlier generations did with the walkman and discman – only this time, it was possible to transport upwards of 20,000 songs! And through the iTunes store, consumers could now purchase not only full albums in music files, but also individual songs, leading to a shakeup throughout the music industry as many labels and artists began to focus more on the hit single and less on the nurturing of long-term music careers. In less than 10 years, Apple sold over 297,000,000 iPods (of various models). This of course, led to other popular devices like the iPhone and iPad which also offered the same personal music experience and more. The impact that Apple, the iPod, and iTunes made on pop culture was so massive that when the Beatles – who incidentally shared the same corporate name as Apple but only after years of legal back-and-forth, finally announced that their 40-year-old music would be available through iTunes in 2010, the idea that you could now carry your entire Beatles collection in your pocket was, well, “more popular than Jesus.” Unfortunately, fortune can’t conquer everything as it became strikingly evident when pictures and video of Jobs began to pop up in 2004. In middle of that year, Jobs announced to his staff that he was suffering from pancreatic cancer. He continued to run the company head and be its main spokesman until he took what everyone hoped would be a temporary leave of absence in January of 2009. After several procedures including a liver transplant, Jobs made his leave permanent in January of 2011, but was still on hand for the company’s unveiling of the highly anticipated iPad 2 and iCloud which was intended to revolutionize the way we store computer files and data. On August 24, 2011, Steve Jobs officially resigned from Apple Inc., and on October 2, 2011, it was announced that he passed away peacefully with his family at his side. He was 56.