Take 6

Take 6 is an American a cappella gospel music sextet formed in 1980 on the campus of Oakwood College in Huntsville, Alabama. The group sings contemporary R&B style, integrating jazz influences with spiritual or inspirational lyrics. They have ten Grammy wins (in several categories in 1988, 1989, 1990, 1991, 1994, 1997, and 2002), as well as ten Dove Awards, one Soul Train Award and two NAACP Image Award nominations. They have collaborated with other artists such as Ray Charles, Nnenna Freelon, Gordon Goodwin, Don Henley, Whitney Houston, Al Jarreau, Quincy Jones, k.d. lang, Queen Latifah, Brian McKnight, Luis Miguel, Marcus Miller, Joe Sample, Ben Tankard, CeCe Winans, and Stevie Wonder.

Group biography

Oakwood College years

In 1980, Claude McKnight (older brother of R&B musician Brian McKnight) formed an a cappella quartet, The Gentlemen's Estates Quartet, at Oakwood College (now Oakwood University), a Seventh-day Adventist university in Huntsville, Alabama, where he was a freshman. He auditioned fellow students for the hobby group. The Gentlemen were rehearsing in a campus bathroom (later said to be in Moran Hall), getting ready for a performance, when Mark Kibble heard them singing. He joined the harmonizing, adding a fifth part, and ended up singing with them onstage that very night. Mark later invited Mervyn Warren to join the group. The group performed under the moniker Alliance.

Take 6 (album)

Take 6, released in 1988 on Reprise Records, is the debut album by American contemporary Gospel music group Take 6. The album won the group their first two Grammy Awards for Best Jazz Vocal Performance by a Duo or Group and Best Soul Gospel Performance by a Duo, Group, Choir, or Chorus. It also earned the group their first three Dove Awards for Group of the Year, Contemporary Black Gospel Album of the Year, and Contemporary Black Gospel Song of the Year.

The album Take 6 is often mistakenly thought to be named do be doo wop bop, because that phrase appears on the album cover under the letters of the group's name. The album's legal title is Take 6, and the cover's designer, Kav DeLuxe, has stated the phrase "do be doo wop bop" was included simply as a "design element."

Background

In 1987 Take 6 held an exclusive performance for gospel record company executives. Yet, many refrained from attending, unsure how to market such a musical group. Fortunately, an uninvited representative of Warner Bros, showed up who was impressed with a tape he’d received of the group. "When I first played their tape," Jim Ed Norman said, "I heard the most enchanting, wonderful sound in music coming from the human voice that I had heard in the longest time."

6 Nimmt!

6 Nimmt! / Take 5! is a counting card game designed by Wolfgang Kramer in 1994 and published by Amigo Spiele. The French version is distributed by Gigamic. This game allows 2–10 players who start with ten randomly numbered cards. These are played in simultaneous turns onto four card stacks with the goal of limiting the number of points (in the form of Bulls' Heads distributed among the cards) you're forced to take. Each player attempts to play their cards without laying their 6th card on a stack, as this results in a penalty of collecting all cards in the stack. Each card indicates penalty points with the number of bull heads on top of the card. After any player reaches 66 points the player with the least penalty points wins.

The game is sometimes called 6 who loses!, Take 6!, Category 5, or the original German name. The game can take from 2 to 10 players. The game's suggested minimum age is 10 years, and lasts on average about 45 minutes. The game consists of multiple rounds (typically 3–4) with cumulative scoring, each taking 10–15 minutes. It is possible to just play a single round as self-contained game.

Jingle Bells

"Jingle Bells" is one of the best-known and commonly sung American wintertime songs in the world. It was written by James Lord Pierpont (1822–1893) and published under the title "One Horse Open Sleigh" in the autumn of 1857. Even though it is now associated with the Christmas and holiday season, it was actually originally written for American Thanksgiving. It has been claimed that it was originally written to be sung by a Sunday school choir; however, historians dispute this, stating that it was much too "racy" to be sung by a children's church choir in the days it was written.

Composition

It is an unsettled question where and when James Lord Pierpont originally composed the song that would become known as "Jingle Bells". A plaque at 19 High Street in the center of Medford Square in Medford, Massachusetts commemorates the "birthplace" of "Jingle Bells," and claims that Pierpont wrote the song there in 1850, at what was then the Simpson Tavern. According to the Medford Historical Society, the song was inspired by the town's popular sleigh races during the 19th century.

List of artists who have recorded "Jingle Bells"

"Jingle Bells" is one of the most recorded songs of all time. Many notable artists have recorded the song, including:

A

B