/ Modified feb 29, 2024 3:35 a.m.

"40 years of Missing You": rock singer John Waite celebrates his hit-making career.

Also on Arizona Spotlight: "A Conversation with Edith Head" returns to Invisible Theatre; the founder of Odyssey Storytelling on building community for 20 years; and Luis Alberto Urrea remembers giving his first autograph.

John Waite hero2 John Waite's hit "Missing You" went to No. 1 on the US Billboard Hot 100 singles chart in 1984 knocking Tina Turner's "What's Love Got To Do With It?" out of the top spot.
John Waite Worldwide

Arizona Spotlight

February 29, 2024

NPR
(Download MP3)

Featured on the February 29th, 2024 edition of ARIZONA SPOTLIGHT with host Mark McLemore:

  • “Missing You” became a number one song in 1984, and the video remained in heavy rotation on MTV for months. It wasn’t singer and songwriter John Waite’s first brush with having hits, his previous work with a band called The Babys included rock radio mainstays like “Isn’t it Time”, and “Every Time I Think of You” that you can still hear being played often today. But the success of “Missing You” was so great. it transformed his career. John Waite has never stopped recording, touring and performing, and he is bringing an evening of music called “40 Years of Missing You” to the Rialto Theater next week.

  • Susan Claassen has been the managing artistic director of the Invisible Theatre for almost five decades.. She is also the star of a one-woman show about the legendary career of Edith Head, the Hollywood fashion icon. After a national tour, A Conversation with Edith Head is returning to the The Invisible Theatre stage March 7th through the 10th.

Susan/Edith and Bob Mackie Susan Claassen as Edith Head with Bob Mackie at Palm Springs Modernism week.
Susan Claassen

Susan and Tippi Hedren VIEW LARGER Susan Claassen as Edith Head with Hollywood icon Tippi Hedren
Susan Claassen
Susan Claassen NYC event VIEW LARGER Susan Claassen with designer John Higgins and model / restauranteur Norma Jean Darden
Susan Claassen

Starr is the founder of a Tucson organization that is about to celebrate its 20th anniversary. Since March of 2004, been providing a valuable venue in this community, and introduced hundreds of people with stories to tell to an eager audience.

book cover Penelope Starr VIEW LARGER Penelope Starr's book "The Radical Act of Community Storytelling: Empowering Voices in Uncensored Events" encourages people in different cities to start and maintain storytelling events.
Penelope Starr
Penelope Starr speaking VIEW LARGER Penelope Starr is a Tucson resident, author and workshop facilitator who founded Odyssey Storytelling in 2004.
Penelope Starr
  • And, to coincide with the annual Brandeis Book & Author Event, acclaimed novelist Luis Alberto Urrea shares the story of how he got his first short story published, and unexpectedly spent an afternoon signing autographs at the mall.

Thursday, March 7th, Urrea will be a guest of the Tucson Chapter of the Brandeis National Committee for an event beginning at 9:15 am at the Skyline Country Club. He will be joined by novelist Heather Webb; Chris Impey, Distinguished Professor from the U of A Department of Astronomy, and Rebecca Senf, head Curator for the Center for Creative Photography at U of A. There will be a panel moderated by Tom McNamara of PBS-Channel 6, a luncheon and silent auction. Proceeds will benefit “Sustaining the Mind”, a Brandeis National Committee fund supporting a Brandeis University research program that combats neurodegenerative diseases including ALS, Alzheimer’s and Parkinson's.Tickets for the Brandeis Book and Author Event can be reserved by contacting Susan Berger at susanfberger@gmail.com.

Luis Alberto urea spot Luis Alberto Urrea was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize for his 2004 book "The Devil's Highway: A True Story", about a group of Mexican men who cross the border into the United States.
Joe Mazza/Little Brown
the house of broken angels cover unsized VIEW LARGER Luis Aberto Urrea's 2018 novel.

Web page by Alecia Vasquez.

Arizona Spotlight
Arizona Spotlight airs every Thursday at 8:30 am and 6:00 pm and every Saturday at 3:00 pm on NPR 89.1 FM / 1550 AM. You can subscribe to our podcast on Apple Music, Spotify, Amazon Music, or the NPR App. See more from Arizona Spotlight.
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