Real Name: Carl Dean Wilson
Born: December 21, 1946

Carl Wilson was an American guitarist and ‘rock and roll’ singer born on December 21, 1946 in Hawthorne, California. He is best known as lead guitarist and co-founder of ‘The Beach Boys’.

Carl Wilson
Carl Wilson

Carl Wilson formed the rock and roll band ‘The Beach Boys’ with his elder brothers Dennis Wilson, Brian Wilson, their cousin Mike Love and friend Al Jardine. The band’s lead vocals for the first three years included “Summertime Blues”, “Pom Pom Play Girl”, “Louie, Louie”, “All Dressed Up for School” and “Girl Don’t Tell Me” as Carl Wilson was in his teens and was still developing as a musician and singer. In the vocal sessions of ‘Beach Boys’, Carl recorded guitar leads by directly plugging in his guitar to soundboard unlike other bands.

Carl Wilson became professional vocalist and successful live performer by the mid-1960s and performed as lead vocalist in many albums and singles, which include “God Only Knows” in 1966, “Smiley Smile” and “Wild Honey” in 1967, singles include: “Good Vibrations”, “Wild Honey”, “Darlin’” and “I Can Hear Music”. He became the de facto leader of the band onstage after his elder brother retired from ‘Beach Boys’ and soon became the band’s in-studio leader. Carl produced several albums, which includes “20/20”, “Surf’s Up”, “Sunflower”, “Carl and the Passions – ‘So Tough’” and “Holland”.

In 1974, Carl Wilson wrote a song with Brian Wilson ‘Good Timin’, which reached the chart album and was a Top 40 American hit. Wilson produced records for several artists in 1970s and also appeared as a backing vocalist on other records. The band ‘Beach Boys’ got split in the early 1980s.

Carl Wilson released a solo album “Carl Wilson” in 1981 and toured to promote the album.  Carl recorded his second album ‘Youngblood’ and by the time of its release he had rejoined with the ‘Beach Boys’ in 1983.

Carl Wilson was a smoker and he was diagnosed with brain and lung cancer in the early 1997. He died on February 6, 1998.

Some of his albums include:

  • The Beach Boys
  • List of Beach Boys songs by singer - Carl Wilson
  • List of songs by Carl Wilson
  • Beach Boys Historic Landmark
  • Carl Wilson
  • Youngblood


Real Name:
Carl Lee Perkins
Born: April 9, 1932

Carl Lee Perkins was an American pioneer of rockabilly music which is a mix of country music and rhythm and blues. He is best known for his song “Blue Suede Shoes”, rockabilly anthem written and sung by him.

Carl Perkins was the son of poor sharecroppers and grew up working in the cotton fields near Tiptonville, Tennessee. He used to listen to radio on Saturday nights along with his father and hear music from the country music radio program “Grand Ole Opry”. The broadcast performances of a country musician Roy Acuff on the Grand Ole Opry program inspired Perkins to ask his parents to get a guitar for him. Carl’s father, Buck couldn’t get him a real guitar but created one from a cigar box and a broomstick. Later Buck purchased a scratched Gene Autry signature model guitar with worn out strings from his neighbor and gave it to Perkins.  He learnt himself playing on Roy Acuff’s songs which heard on the Opry program, “The Wabash Cannonball” and “Great Speckled Bird”.

Carl Perkins
Carl Perkins

Carl Perkins learnt more about playing guitar from a fellow field worker ‘John Westbrook’ who played blues and gospel. In the mid of 1940s Carl Perkins formed the band “Perkins Brothers” with his brothers Clayton and Jay. Carl learnt gospel, blues and country music and wrote a song ‘Movie Magg’. In October 1954 he was auditioned for a record producer Sam Phillips at Sun Records and released ‘Turn Around’ and ‘Movie Magg’ on the Phillips owned Flip label.

Carl Perkins wrote the song “Blue Suede Shoes” in the fall of 1955 and this was released on January 1, 1956. The song “Blue Suede Shoes” was a big hit and reached number one on “Billboard magazine’s country music” charts and number two on Billboard’s Best Sellers pop music chart. Perkins is the first country artist to reach number three on the rhythm & blues charts on March 17.

Carl Perkins and his group “Perkins Brothers” were driving to New York to appear on Perry Como’s television program and they met with an accident as the driver fell asleep. Carl Perkins and his brother Jay were seriously injured. However, he recovered and was back to perform in about a month. Sam Phillips arranged a recording session where Carl recorded for the songs “Dixie Fried”, “Right String, Wrong Yo-Yo”, “Everybody’s Trying to Be My Baby”, “You Can’t Make Love to Somebody”, “Put Your Cat Clothes On” and “That Don’t Move Me”. Perkins recorded the song “Glad All Over” in 1950s and a performance of the song featured in the movie “Jamboree” in 1957.

Carl Perkins toured England in 1964 along with the band “The Animals”, “Eric Burdon” and “Chuck Berry”. An American country singer-songwriter, Johnny Cash took Perkins written “Daddy Sang Bass” which reached number one on the country music charts in 1968.

Carl Perkins was inducted to the “Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame” in 1985 and in 1987 he was inducted to the “'Rock and Roll Hall of Fame’. Perkins song “Blue Suede Shoes” was chosen as a “Grammy Hall of Fame Award” recipient and one of “The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame’s 500 Songs that Shaped Rock and Roll”.

Carl Perkins performed on the album “Class of ‘55” in 1986 when he returned to Sun Studios in Memphis. Perkins performed along with Jerry Lee Lewis, Roy Orbison and Johnny Cash. He co-wrote and played guitar on number one hit “Let me Tell You About Love” of “The Judd’s” in 1989. Perkins last album “Go Cat Go!” was released in 1996.

Carl Perkins was ranked number 69 on the list of “100 Greatest Artist of All Time” by Rolling Stone in 2004.

Carl Perkins died of throat cancer on January 19, 1998.

Some of his albums include:

  • Movie Magg
  • Turn Around
  • Gone, Gone, Gone
  • Let The Juke Box Keep On Playing
  • Blue Suede Shoes
  • Honey, Don’t!
  • Sure To Fall
  • Dixie Fried
  • I’m Sorry, I’m Not Sorry
  • Matchbox
  • Your True Love
  • That’s Right
  • Forever Yours
  • Glad All Over
  • Lend Me Your Comb
  • I Got A Woman
  • Pink Pedal Pushers
  • Pop, Let Me Have The Car
  • Levi Jacket (And A Long Tail Shirt)
  • This Life I Live
  • Y-O-U
  • Pointed Toe Shoes
  • Highway of Love


Real Name:
Carl Johan Grimmark
Born: October 14, 1977

Carl Johan Grimmark is a Christian guitarist born on October 14, 1977 in Gothenburg, Sweden.

Carl Johan Grimmark has played with many Christian metal bands, which include “Narnia”, “Rob Rock” and “Saviour Machine”.

Carl Johan Grimmark founded the band “Narnia” along with the singer Christian Lijegren in 1996 in Sweden. Carl Johan Grimmark met Lijegren for the first time in a small city ‘Jönköping’ in Sweden in 1993; Lijegren was working with the band ‘Modest Attraction’ and the band was about to release their first album ‘The truth in Your face’. Both of them were working in different bands but still stayed in contact for many years. Carl Johan Grimmark was working with ‘Sentinel’ at this time. Grimmark and Lijegren both were struggling with their bands; Lijegren had a passion for melodic rock and was not able to explore this in the band ‘Modest Attraction’ and Grimmark got split from ‘Sentinel’ for some reason in 1996. Lijegren, who was interested in hard rock wanted to start a project and he gave a call to Grimmark to join him. Grimmark found the project interesting and said he would join the project.

Carl Johan Grimmark
Carl Johan Grimmark

Carl Johan Grimmark again got a call from Lijegren after few months asking him to join “Modest Attraction” tour to Germany and play guitar in place of Stephan Mohlin. Grimmark agreed to tour with the band and replaced Stephan Mohlin. Stephan Mohlin later left the band and Grimmark was asked to join the band for full-time and stayed back with the band.

Carl Grimmark and Christian Lijegren altered some of the old songs from the other bands and went for recording in the Top Recording Studio, where Lijegren sang and Grimmark played all the instruments. In the recording of their first album they included several guests, Janne Stark on guitar solos, Mark Hallek on violin and Jakob Persson on bass. The recording finished by 1997 and they released their first album ‘Awakening’ in 1998.

Carl Johan Grimmark is known for his neo-classical metal styling. He joined the band ‘Beautiful Skin’ in 2006.

Some of his albums include:

  • Awakening (1998)
  • Long Live the King (1999)
  • Desert Land (2001)
  • The Great Fall  and Eyes of Eternity (2003) 
  • Glory Thy Name (2004)
  • Holy Hall and Hero (2005)
  • At Short Notice... Live in Germany and Enter the Gate (2006)
  • Decade of Confession and Garden of Chaos (2007)


Carl Kress was an American jazz guitarist born on October 20, 1907 in Newark, New Jersey.

Carl Kress began his musical career by playing piano in the early 1920s and later with banjo and tenor guitar. In 1926, he performed with a popular American orchestral leader ‘Paul Whiteman’ and continued his career as a studio guitarist. Carl Kress has performed with many musicians in the late 1920s and 1930s, which include Red Nichols, Bix Beiderbecke, Miff Mole, Frankie Trumbauer, Eddie Lang, Jimmy, Adrian Rollini and Tommy Dorsey. Carl’s early recordings were made with the tenor guitar.

Carl Kress
Carl Kress

Carl Kress shifted to six-string guitar in the early 1930s. He is known for his chordal style on acoustic guitar and introduced a new way of playing rhythm guitar. Carl has left major number of recordings of his playing as he was in great demand by studios and orchestras. At the same time he was working with radio stations and recorded some of the finest duet songs with Eddie Lang, Tony Mottola and Dick McDonough.

Carl Kress has played duo with Muggsy Spanier in 1944, Pee Wee Russell in 1945, Tommy Dorsey and Bobby Hacket in 1949 and Pearl Bailey. He worked with Gordon Jenkins orchestra along with Louis Armstrong. After the death of McDonough in 1938, Carl joined with the swing jazz guitarist ‘George Barnes’ in 1961 and recorded duo.

In 1940s, Carl Kress worked as a record producer for Capitol Records. He was a co-owner of the “Onyx Club” on 52nd Street in New York City.

Carl Kress died of a heart attack on 1965.

Some of his albums include;

  • ‘Afterthoughts’ (Part 1) and ‘Afterthoughts’ (Part 2 & 3) in 1938
  • ‘Helena’, ‘Peg Leg Shuffle’, ‘Sutton Mutton’ and ‘Love Song’ in 1939

 


Real Name:
Carl Ashley Raphael Barât
Born: June 6, 1978

Carl Ashley Raphael Barât is an English musician born on June 6, 1978 in Basingstoke, England.

Carl currently features in “The Culture Show” of BBC Two. He has also said that he wants to work with Doherty again and they have supposedly begun writing a musical together which is expected to be released in early 2009.

Carl Barât divided his youth between his parents, his mother, Chrissie who was part of the commune-dwelling counterculture and peace groups and his father worked in an armaments factory. Carl has one sister Lucie Barât and he spent his childhood with his mother.  In 1996, Carl met Peter Doherty through his sister Amy-Jo when he was studying at Brunel University in Uxbridge. Carl Barât and Doherty formed the band “Libertines” in 1997. The band included John Hassall on bass, Gary Powell on drums, Carl Barât on vocals/lead guitar and Peter Doherty on vocals/rhythm guitar.

Carl Ashley Raphael Barat
Carl Ashley Raphael Barat

The first album of “The Libertines” is “Up the Bracket” which was released in 2002. The album reached number 35 in the UK chart albums. Doherty was asked not to perform in the band’s next tour to Japan due to his addiction to heroin and crack cocaine in 2003. Doherty broke into Barât Mayfair flat and stole various items, which included NME award and antique guitar; he was sentenced to six months in prison and later shortened to two months. Carl Barât and Doherty rejoined after his release from the prison and performed an unrehearsed “Freedom Gig” on October 8, 2003 at the Tap ‘n’ Tin club in Chatham, Kent. Doherty was expelled from the band again as he continued his drug addiction. The band released their second album “The Libertines” on August 30, 2004. The Libertines continued touring without Doherty as per contractual obligations. Peter Doherty formed a new band “Babyshambles” in 2003.

In December 2004, the band was disbanded after the release of their second album “The Libertines”. The band “The Libertines” won NME’s Best British Band award in February 2005 and Carl paid tribute to Doherty in his receiving speech.

Carl’s first work as a solo artist was for the band “Client” on their single “Pornography”. In June 2004, Carl Barât set up the London club Dirty Pretty Things and served as a DJ. Carl Barât and Doherty were publicly reunited at the “Boogaloo Bar” in Highgate, North London. After this both expressed of working together in future. Peter Doherty and Carl Barât played 13 songs at the second of Doherty’s gigs “An Evening with Pete Doherty” at the Hackney Empire on April 12, 2007.

Carl Barât announced about his new band “Dirty Pretty Things” on September 15, 2005 which included Gary Powell on drums, Anthony Rossomando on guitar and Didz Hammond on bass. The band released their debut album “Waterloo to Anywhere” on May 8, 2006 and the first single from the album was “Bang Bang, You’re Dead” which was released on April 24, 2006. The bands single “Bang Bang, You’re Dead” reached number five in the UK Single chart and the debut album “Waterloo to Anywhere” reached number three in the UK album chart.

Some of his albums include:

  • ‘Up the Bracket’ in 2002
  • ‘The Libertines’ in 2004
  • ‘Time for Heroes’, ‘I Get Along’ and ‘Don’t Look Back into the Sun/Death on the Stairs’ in 2003
  • ‘What Became of the Likely Lads’ in 2005
  • ‘Waterloo to Anywhere’
  • ‘Time for Heroes – The Best of The Libertines’ in 2007
  • ‘Romance At Short Notice’ in 2008

Some of his singles include:

  • ‘What a Waster’, ‘Up the Bracket’ and ‘Time for Heroes’ in 2002
  • ‘Don’t Look Back into the Sun’ in 2003
  • Can’t Stand Me Now’ in 2004
  • ‘Bang Bang You’re Dead’, ‘Deadwood’ and ‘Wondering’ in 2006
  • ‘Tired Of England’ in 2008