Bryan Ferry

While his tenure as the frontman for the legendary Roxy Music remained his towering achievement, singer Bryan Ferry also carved out a successful solo career which continued in the lush, sophisticated manner perfected on the group's final records. Born September 26, 1945, in Washington, England, Ferry, the son of a coal miner, began his musical career as a singer with the rock outfit the Banshees while studying art at the University of Newcastle Upon Tyne under pop-conceptualist Richard Hamilton. He later joined the Gas Board, a soul group featuring bassist Graham Simpson; in 1970, Ferry and Simpson formed Roxy Music.



Within a few years, Roxy Music had become phenomenally successful, affording Ferry the opportunity to cut his first solo LP in 1973. Far removed from the group's arty glam rock, These Foolish Things established the path which all of Ferry's solo work -- as well as the final Roxy Music records -- would take, focusing on elegant synth pop interpretations of '60s hits like Bob Dylan's "A Hard Rain's A-Gonna Fall," The Rolling Stones' "Sympathy for the Devil," and The Beatles' "You Won't See Me," all rendered in the singer's distinct, coolly dramatic manner.

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