Harry Connick, Jr.

Harry Connick Jr. (born September 11, 1967) is a singer, pianist, actor, and humanitarian. His music encompasses jazz, some of it very much in the style of the crooners of the 1940s and early '50s, funk and blues. His father, Harry Connick, Sr., was district attorney of New Orleans for 27 years. He married model Jill Goodacre in 1994.

Flirtation with funk in the mid-1990s

In 1994, Harry Connick, Jr., decided to branch out, releasing She, an album of New Orleans funk that also went platinum. In addition, he released a song called "(I Could Only) Whisper Your Name" for the soundtrack of The Mask, starring Jim Carrey, which is his most successful single in the United States to date. He took his funk music on a tour of the United Kingdom in 1994, an effort that did not please all of his fans, who were expecting a jazz crooner. One fan who walked out said, "We expected Frank Sinatra but we got Motörhead instead." The music was actually more reminiscent of the Meters rather than Motörhead. Connick also took his funk music to the People's Republic of China in 1995, playing at the Shanghai Center Theatre. The performance was televised live in China for what became known as the Shanghai Gumbo special.

Related Topics:
1994 - The Mask - Jim Carrey - Motörhead - The Meters - People's Republic of China - 1995 - Shanghai Center Theatre - Shanghai - Gumbo

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Connick played a homicidal killer in his third film, Copycat (1995), which starred Holly Hunter and Sigourney Weaver. The next year, he released his second funk album, Star Turtle, which did not sell as well as previous albums, although it did reach No. 38 on the charts. However, he appeared in the most successful movie of that year, Independence Day (movie), with Will Smith and Jeff Goldblum.

Related Topics:
Holly Hunter - Sigourney Weaver - Independence Day (movie) - Will Smith - Jeff Goldblum

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