James Brown

Check out CNN's web coverage of James Brown's career, combining documentary video, photo gallery, and an excellent broadcast story by Sibila Vargas.

I found it intriguing that Brown died on Christmas Day, because he'd written and performed quite a bit of holiday music, including a slow blues, "Santa Claus, Santa Claus." (Note that the 2005 album "A James Brown Christmas" is pretty awful; "James Brown's Funky Christmas" (1995, with tracks drawn from as far back as 1966) is the one to get.)