title: Chicago Bears

text: Full control of the team was turned over to Halas and Sternaman in 1921. Official team and league records cite Halas as the founder as he took over the team in 1920 when it became a charter member of the NFL.


title: Chicago Bears

text: The team relocated to Chicago in 1921, where the club was renamed the Chicago Staleys. Under an agreement reached by Halas and Sternaman with Staley, Halas purchased the rights to the club from Staley for US$100.


title: Chicago Bears

text: In 1922, Halas changed the team name from the Staleys to the Bears. The team moved into Wrigley Field, which was home to the Chicago Cubs baseball franchise. As with several early NFL franchises, the Bears derived their nickname from their city's baseball team (some directly, some indirectly – like the Bears, whose young are called "cubs"). Halas liked the bright orange-and-blue colors of his alma mater, the University of Illinois, and the Bears adopted those colors as their own, albeit in a darker shade of each (the blue is Pantone 5395, navy blue, and the orange is Pantone 1665, similar to burnt orange).


title: Chicago Bears

text: The Staleys/Bears dominated the league in the early years. Their rivalry with the Chicago Cardinals, the oldest in the NFL (and a crosstown rival from 1920 to 1959), was key in four out of the first six league titles. During the league's first six years, the Bears lost twice to the Canton Bulldogs (who took two league titles over that span), and split with their crosstown rival Cardinals (going 4–4–2 against each other over that span), but no other team in the league defeated the Bears more than a single time. During that span, the Bears posted 34 shutouts.


title: Chicago Bears

text: The Bears' rivalry with the Green Bay Packers is one of the oldest and most storied in American professional sports, dating back to 1921 (the Green Bay Packers were an independent team until they joined the NFL in 1921). In one infamous incident that year, Halas got the Packers expelled from the league in order to prevent their signing a particular player, and then graciously got them re-admitted after the Bears had closed the deal with that player.


title: Chicago Bears

text: The franchise was an early success under Halas, capturing the NFL Championship in and remaining competitive throughout the decade. In 1924 the Bears claimed the Championship after defeating the Cleveland Bulldogs on December 7, even putting the title "World's Champions" on their 1924 team photo. But the NFL had ruled that games after November 30 did not count towards league standings, and the Bears had to settle for second place behind Cleveland. Their only losing season came in .


title: Chicago Bears

text: During the 1920s the club was responsible for triggering the NFL's long-standing rule that a player could not be signed until his college's senior class had graduated. The NFL took that action as a consequence of the Bears' aggressive signing of famous University of Illinois player Red Grange within a day of his final game as a collegian.


title: Chicago Bears

text: Despite much of the on-field success, the Bears were a team in trouble. They faced the problem of increased operating costs and flatlined attendance. The Bears would only draw roughly 5,000–6,000 fans a game, while a University of Chicago game would draw 40,000–50,000 fans a game. By adding top college football draw Red Grange to the roster, the Bears knew that they found something to draw more fans to their games. C.C. Pyle was able to secure a $2,000 per game contract for Grange, and in one of the first games, the Bears defeated the Green Bay Packers, 21–0. However, Grange remained on the sidelines while learning the team's plays from Bears quarterback Joey Sternaman. Later in 1925, The Bears would go on a barnstorming tour, showing off the best football player of the day. 75,000 people paid to see Grange lead the Bears to a 17–7 victory over the Los Angeles Tigers, who were a quickly put together team of West Coast college all-stars. After a loss to San Francisco, the Bears cruised to a 60–3 over a semi-pro team called the Portland All Stars.


title: Chicago Bears

text: Any hopes that Grange would lead the Bears to glory in 1926 were quickly dashed. A failed contract talk led to Grange bolting to the AFL's New York Yankees, owned by Pyle. The Bears also lost star quarterback Joey Sternaman, who joined the Chicago Bulls of the AFL. The Bears replaced Grange with Paddy Driscoll, a star football player in his own right. The Bears used the money made from the Grange barn-storming tour to sign the man that replaced him. Grange split his time between making movies and playing football. However, the time was not right to have two competing pro football leagues, and the AFL folded after only one season. Grange would return to the Bears.


title: Chicago Bears

text: After the financial losses of the Championship season, Halas' partner Dutch Sternaman left the organization. Halas maintained full control of the Bears until his death in 1983. He also coached the team off-and-on for forty seasons, an NFL record. In the 1932 "Unofficial" NFL Championship, the Bears defeated the Portsmouth Spartans in the first indoor American football game at Chicago Stadium.


title: Chicago Bears

text: The success of the playoff game led the NFL to institute a championship game. In the first NFL Championship, the Bears played against the New York Giants, defeating them 23–21. The teams met again in the 1934 NFL Championship where the Giants, wearing sneakers defeated the Bears 30–13 on a cold, icy day at the Polo Grounds.


title: Chicago Bears

text: From 1940 to 1947, quarterback Sid Luckman led the Bears to victories in four out of the five NFL Championship Games in which they appeared. The team acquired the University of Chicago's discarded nickname "Monsters of the Midway" and their now-famous helmet wishbone "C", as well as a newly penned theme song that declared them "The Pride and Joy of Illinois". One famous victory during that period was their 73–0 victory over the favored Washington Redskins at Griffith Stadium in the 1940 NFL Championship Game; the score is still an NFL record for lopsided results. The secret behind the one-sided outcome was the introduction of a new offensive formation by Halas. The T-formation, as Halas named it, involved two running backs instead of the traditional one in the backfield. Luckman established himself as one of the franchise's most elite quarterbacks. Between 1939 and 1950, he set the Bears' passing records for most career touchdowns, yards, and completions. Many of Luckman's records stood for decades before they were eclipsed by Jay Cutler in .


title: Chicago Bears

text: Cutler then went on to break Luckman's franchise record for most career passing touchdowns a year later in .


title: Chicago Bears

text: After declining throughout the 1950s, the team rebounded in to capture its eighth NFL Championship, which would be its last until 1985. The late 1960s and early-1970s produced notable players like Dick Butkus, Gale Sayers, and Brian Piccolo, who died of embryonal carcinoma in 1970. The American television network ABC aired a movie about Piccolo in 1971 entitled "Brian's Song", starring James Caan and Billy Dee Williams in the roles of Piccolo and Sayers respectively; Jack Warden won an Emmy Award for his performance as Halas. The movie was later released for theater screenings after first being shown on television. Despite Hall of Fame careers, Butkus and Sayers would also have their careers cut short due to injuries, hamstringing the Bears of this era.


title: Chicago Bears

text: Halas retired as coach in 1967 and spent the rest of his days in the front office. He became the only person to be involved with the NFL throughout the first 60 years of its existence. He was also a member of the Pro Football Hall of Fame's first induction class in 1963. As the only living founder of the NFL at the February 1970 merger between the NFL and the American Football League, the owners honored Halas by electing him the first President of the National Football Conference, a position that he held until his death in 1983. In his honor, the NFL named the NFC Championship trophy as the George Halas Memorial Trophy.


title: Chicago Bears

text: After the merger, the Bears finished the 1970 season last place in their division, a repeat of their placing in the 1969 season. In 1975, the Bears drafted Walter Payton from Jackson State University with their first pick. He won the NFL Most Valuable Player Award in the 1977–78 season. Payton would go on to eclipse Jim Brown's NFL career rushing record in 1984 before retiring in 1987, and would hold the mark until , when Emmitt Smith of the Dallas Cowboys surpassed it. Payton's career and personality would capture the hearts of Bear fans, who called him "Sweetness". He died from a rare form of liver cancer in 1999 at the age of 45.


title: Chicago Bears

text: On November 1, 1983, a day after the death of George Halas, his oldest daughter, Virginia McCaskey, took over as the majority owner of the team. Her husband, Ed McCaskey, succeeded her father as the chairman of the board. Their son Michael became the third president in team history. Mrs. McCaskey holds the honorary title of "secretary of the board of directors", but the 90-year–old matriarch has been called the glue that holds the franchise together. Mrs. McCaskey's reign as the owner of the Bears was not planned, as her father originally earmarked her brother, George "Mugs" Halas Jr. as the heir apparent to the franchise. However, he died of a massive heart attack in 1979. Her impact on the team is well-noted as her own family has dubbed her "The First Lady of Sports", and the "Chicago Sun-Times" has listed her as one of Chicago's most powerful women.


title: Chicago Bears

text: Mike Ditka, a tight end for the Bears from 1961 to 1966, was hired to coach the team by George Halas in 1982. His gritty personality earned him the nickname "Iron Mike". The team reached the NFC Championship game in 1984. In the 1985 season the fire in the Bears–Packers rivalry was re-lit when Ditka used 315-pound defensive tackle "Refrigerator" Perry as a running back in a touchdown play at Lambeau Field, against the Packers. The Bears won their ninth NFL Championship, first since the AFL-NFL merger, in Super Bowl XX after the 1985 season in which they dominated the NFL with their then-revolutionary 46 defense and a cast of characters that recorded the novelty rap song "The Super Bowl Shuffle". The season was notable in that the Bears had only one loss, the "unlucky 13th" game of the season, a Monday night affair in which they were defeated by the Miami Dolphins. At the time, much was made of the fact that the Dolphins were the only franchise in history to have had an undefeated season and post-season. The Dolphins came close to setting up a rematch in the Super Bowl, but lost to the New England Patriots in the AFC title game. "The Super Bowl Shuffle" was videotaped the day after that Monday night loss in Miami.


title: Chicago Bears

text: After the 1985 Championship season, the Bears remained competitive throughout the 1980s but failed to return to the Super Bowl under Ditka. Between the firing of Ditka and the hiring of Lovie Smith, the Bears had two head coaches, Dave Wannstedt and Dick Jauron. While both head coaches led the team to the playoffs once (Wannstedt in 1994 and Jauron in 2001), neither was able to accumulate a winning record or bring the Bears back to the Super Bowl. Therefore, the 1990s was largely considered to be a disappointment.


title: Chicago Bears

text: Before the Bears hired Jauron in January 1999, Dave McGinnis (Arizona's defensive coordinator, and a former Bears assistant under Ditka and Wannstedt) backed out of taking the head coaching position. The Bears scheduled a press conference to announce the hiring before McGinnis agreed to contract terms. Soon after Jauron's hiring, Mrs. McCaskey fired her son Michael as president, replacing him with Ted Phillips and promoting Michael to chairman of the board. Phillips, the current Bears president, became the first man outside of the Halas-McCaskey family to run the team.


title: Chicago Bears

text: Lovie Smith, hired on January 15, 2004, is the third post-Ditka head coach. Joining the Bears as a rookie head coach, Smith brought the highly successful Tampa 2 defensive scheme with him to Chicago. Before his second season with the Bears, the team rehired their former offensive coordinator and then Illinois head coach Ron Turner to improve the Bears' struggling offense. In , the Bears won their division and reached the playoffs for the first time in four years. Their previous playoff berth was earned by winning the NFC Central in . The Bears improved upon their success the following season, by clinching their second consecutive NFC North title during Week 13 of the season, winning their first playoff game since 1995, and earning a trip to Super Bowl XLI. However, they fell short of the championship, losing 29–17 to the Indianapolis Colts. Following the 2006 season, the club decided to give Smith a contract extension through 2011, at roughly $5 million per year. This comes a season after being the lowest-paid head coach in the National Football League.


title: Chicago Bears

text: The club has played in over a thousand games since becoming a charter member of the NFL in . Through the 2010 season, they led the NFL in overall franchise wins with 704 and had an overall record of 704–512–42 (going 687–494–42 during the regular season and 17–18 in the playoffs). On November 18, 2010, the Bears recorded franchise win number 700 in a win against the Miami Dolphins.


title: Chicago Bears

text: The Bears made one of the biggest trades in franchise history, acquiring Pro Bowl quarterback Jay Cutler from the Denver Broncos in exchange for Kyle Orton and draft picks on April 2, 2009. After a disappointing 2009 campaign with the team going 7–9, Mike Martz was hired as the team's offensive coordinator on February 1, 2010. On March 5, 2010, the Bears signed defensive end Julius Peppers, running back Chester Taylor, and tight end Brandon Manumaleuna, spending over $100 million on the first day of free agency. Also during the 2010 offseason, Michael McCaskey was replaced by brother George McCaskey as chairman of the Bears. With a 38–34 win against the New York Jets, the Bears clinched the No. 2 seed and a first-round bye for the 2010–11 NFL playoffs. In their first Playoff game since Super Bowl XLI, The Bears defeated the No. 4 seed Seattle Seahawks 35–24 in the Divisional Round. The Bears reached the NFC Championship Game, where they played Green Bay Packers at Soldier Field – only the second playoff meeting between the two storied rivals, the only other game played in 1941. The Bears lost the game, 21–14.


title: Chicago Bears

text: The team started the 2011 season strong with a 7–3 record, and running back Matt Forté led the NFL in total yards from scrimmage. Eventually, quarterback Jay Cutler fractured his thumb, and Forté also was lost for the season against the Kansas City Chiefs after spraining his MCL, and the Bears, with Caleb Hanie playing, lost five straight before winning against the Minnesota Vikings with Josh McCown starting over Hanie. At season's end, general manager Jerry Angelo was fired, and former Chiefs director of scouting and former Bears scout Phil Emery was brought in. Offensive coordinator Mike Martz resigned, and eventually retired, and was replaced by offensive line coach Mike Tice. The Bears made another notable move by trading for Miami Dolphins receiver and Pro Bowl MVP Brandon Marshall. The Bears became the first team in NFL history to return six interceptions for touchdowns in the first seven games of the season, with another pick-six by Brian Urlacher in Week 9 bringing Chicago two behind the record set by the 1961 San Diego Chargers. However, the Bears missed the playoffs with a record of 10–6 (after starting the season 7–1, the first team to start with the record and miss the playoffs since the 1996 Washington Redskins), and Smith was fired on December 31.


title: Chicago Bears

text: Then-CFL head coach and former NFL journeyman Marc Trestman was hired to succeed Smith after an exhaustive search that included at least 13 known candidates. On March 20, 2013, Brian Urlacher's 13-year tenure with the Bears ended when both sides failed to agree on a contract. The Trestman era began on September 8 with a 24–21 win over the Cincinnati Bengals, making Trestman the fourth head coach in Bears history to win in his coaching debut, after George Halas (1920), Neill Armstrong (1978) and Dick Jauron (1999). The Bears ended the 2013 season 8–8, barely missing the playoffs after losing in the final week of the season to the Packers. Despite having a second-ranked offense that set numerous franchise records, the defense greatly worsened as it set franchise worsts in categories like yards allowed (6,313).


title: Chicago Bears

text: The following season was a disaster for the Bears, with the offense regressing to finish outside the top 20 in scoring. The team also allowed 50-point games in two straight weeks against the Patriots and Packers, including a franchise-high 42 points and NFL-record six touchdowns allowed in the first half against the latter, to become the first team since the 1923 Rochester Jeffersons to allow at least 50 points in consecutive games. The Bears ended the year 5–11 and last in the NFC North. Trestman and Emery were fired after the season ended.


title: Chicago Bears

text: The Bears hired Ryan Pace of the New Orleans Saints to be their new general manager on January 8, 2015. On January 16, 2015, John Fox accepted a four-year deal to become head coach. In Fox's first season as head coach, the Bears saw improvements from 2014; after "USA Today" projected the Bears to win three games, they doubled that total and finished the season with a 6–10 record, including a Thanksgiving win over the Packers at Lambeau Field.


title: Chicago Bears

text: However, during the 2016 season, the Bears regressed heavily, compiling a 3–13 record (their worst since the NFL's change to 16-game seasons in 1978). The season included several injuries to starters and secondary players, including Jay Cutler, who only played five games as a result of two separate injuries. Backup quarterback Brian Hoyer started the next three games before a broken arm put him out for the season. He was replaced by Matt Barkley, who made his first career start with the Bears. None of the three quarterbacks returned for the 2017 season.


title: Chicago Bears

text: In the 2017 NFL Draft, the team selected quarterback Mitchell Trubisky with the second-overall pick, who sat behind newly signed quarterback Mike Glennon for the first four games before taking over. The Bears ended the season 5–11 and again finished last in the NFC North. On January 1, 2018, Fox was fired, ending his tenure in Chicago with a 14–34 record.


title: Chicago Bears

text: The Bears hired Matt Nagy from the Kansas City Chiefs as their new head coach in January 2018. General manager Ryan Pace signed receivers Taylor Gabriel, Allen Robinson, and Trey Burton in the offseason to complement second-year quarterback Mitchell Trubisky. The Bears also acquired linebacker Khalil Mack in a block-blockbuster trade from the Oakland Raiders to further bolster their defense, sending a package of draft picks that includes 2019 and 2020 1st round draft picks in exchange. Nagy's Bears clinched the NFC North on December 16, 2018, for the first time since 2010 with a 24–17 victory over the Green Bay Packers. The Bears finished the 2018 season with a 12–4 record. They lost to the defending Super Bowl Champions Philadelphia Eagles in the Wild Card round of the Playoffs after Cody Parkey's game-winning field goal attempt was partially tipped and hit the uprights in the final seconds of the game, a play coined the "Double Doink". Despite the first-round exit, Nagy was named Coach of the Year by the Pro Football Writers Association and Associated Press. He was the first Bears coach to be given the AP award since Lovie Smith in 2005 and the fifth in team history.


title: Chicago Bears

text: In 2019, the team regressed to an 8–8 record, though Nagy's combined 20 wins in 2018 and 2019 were the most by a Bears head coach in his first two seasons. During the year, renovations to Halas Hall were completed, allowing the team to move Training Camp from Ward Field on the campus of Olivet Nazarene University in Bourbonnais, Illinois to Lake Forest for 2020.


title: Chicago Bears

text: The Bears opened the 2020 season with a 5–1 record. However, they lost their next six games. The Bears won three of their last four games to finish the season with an 8–8 record. Despite their finish, the Bears qualified for the 2020–21 NFL playoffs, which was expanded to include one additional wildcard team from each conference. The New Orleans Saints defeated the Bears in the opening round of the playoffs, 21–9. The team did not re-sign Trubisky after the 2020 season and instead allowed him to become a free agent.


title: Chicago Bears

text: Prior to the 2021 season, the Bears traded up in the 2021 NFL Draft to select quarterback Justin Fields 11th overall. The team also signed veteran quarterback Andy Dalton in free agency. Dalton was initially declared the Bears starting quarterback, but Fields won the position after Dalton was injured. The Bears finished the season with a 6–11 record and missed the playoffs. Nagy and general manager Ryan Pace were fired after the season's conclusion. Nagy posted a 34–33 record over four seasons with two playoff berths, while Pace compiled a 48–65 record over seven seasons.


title: Chicago Bears

text: On January 25, 2022, the Bears hired Ryan Poles as their general manager. The team hired Matt Eberflus as the franchise's 17th head coach two days later.


title: Chicago Bears

text: The team is primarily owned by the heirs of George Halas. His daughter, Virginia Halas McCaskey, her children, and grandchildren control 80 percent of the stock, and Mrs. McCaskey is empowered to speak for the interests of her children and grandchildren as well as her own. Pat Ryan, former chairman and CEO of Aon Corp., and Aon director Andrew J. McKenna own 19.7% of the club. In a "Crain's Chicago Business" article, one businessman described his wishes for the team to maximize its potential. In 2009, "Yahoo! Sports" listed the McCaskeys as the third worst owner in the NFL, stating "[T]hey get less for what they've got than any team in our league."


title: Chicago Bears

text: In 2020, "Forbes" magazine reported that the franchise is worth $3.525 billion, making it the seventh richest franchise in the NFL. Chicago is the third largest media market in the United States.


title: Chicago Bears

text: The team has major sponsorship deals with Dr Pepper Snapple Group, Miller Brewing Company, PNC Financial Services, United Airlines, Verizon, Xfinity, and Proven IT. The team was the first in the NFL to have a presenting sponsor, with the 2004 season advertised as "Bears Football presented by BankOne "(now Chase)"". Additionally, the Bears have an agreement with WFLD (the Fox owned-and-operated station in Chicago) to broadcast pre-season football games.


title: Chicago Bears

text: Before the 2003 season, the team had two unofficial mascots named "Rocky" and "Bearman". "Rocky" was a man who donned a #1 Bears jersey, carried a megaphone, and started chants all over Soldier Field during the 1970s, 1980s, and early 1990s, in a fashion similar to Fireman Ed. There is no known source of who "Rocky" was, and presumably currently lives in Northwestern Indiana. Don Wachter, also known as "Bearman", is a season ticket holder who decided in 1995 that he could also assist the team by cheerleading, similar to Rocky. The club allowed him to run across the field with a large Bears flag during player introductions and each team score (a role currently done by the Bears 4th Phase and Bears captains). In 1996, he donned his "costume" of face paint, bear head and arms, and a number 46 jersey. "Bearman" was forced to stop wearing his costume with the introduction of Staley Da Bear in 2003; however, in 2005, Wachter was allowed in costume again.


title: Chicago Bears

text: Staley Da Bear is an anthropomorphic bear with a customized No. 00 jersey, with blue and orange eyes, synonymous with the team's main colors. His name is eponymous to corn processing company A. E. Staley, who founded the Bears' franchise. Like Rocky and Bearman, he entertains Bears fans, but like other NFL mascots, and mascots in general, Staley also makes various visits to charity events, parties, Chicago Rush AFL games, and other Bears-related events, as well as taking part in various games with his "furballs" against youth football teams at halftime.


title: Chicago Bears

text: The team also formerly had their own cheerleading squad called the Chicago Honey Bears, who were formed in 1976. However, Bears owner Virginia Halas McCaskey terminated them after the 1985 season. The squad's uniforms have changed 3 times: from 1976 to 1979, the uniform was a white bodysuit with navy blue sleeves, then from 1980 to 1984 it became a white bodysuit, but with orange sleeves and the navy was moved to the trim, and in the squad's final season in 1985, the uniform was redesigned with an orange sequin vest.


title: Chicago Bears

text: Since 1998, the Bears have partnered with 'A Safe Place,' a domestic violence shelter in Waukegan, Illinois. In June 2017, current and former Bears employees helped with renovations at the shelter by ripping up carpet, painting walls, demolishing a kitchen and building a fence. The Bears have also provided financial support throughout the years.


title: Chicago Bears

text: The Green Bay Packers are the Bears' biggest rivals since their team's inception in 1920. The Green Bay Packers currently have the lead at 103–95–6, and the teams have met twice in the postseason. The Bears won the 1941 meeting, 33–14, and eventually defeated the New York Giants in the 1941 NFL Championship Game, and the Packers won the 2011 meeting, 21–14, en route to a Super Bowl XLV win over the Pittsburgh Steelers. The teams' first meeting was a victory for the Bears (known as the Staleys at the time) in 1921 in a shutout, 20–0. The Packers claimed their first win over the Bears in 1925, 14–10. The 1924 matchup (which ended in a 3–0 win for Chicago) was notable for featuring the first-ever ejection of players in a game in NFL history, as Frank Hanny of the Bears and Walter Voss of the Packers were ejected for punching each other. The rivalry also featured one of the last successful fair catch kicks in 1968, when Bears kicker Mac Percival kicked the game-winning field goal.


title: Chicago Bears

text: Chicago and Minnesota took each other on in the Vikings' inaugural game, with the Vikings defeating the Bears in a 37–13 rout, and Minnesota currently holds the series lead 60–54–2.


title: Chicago Bears

text: The Detroit Lions and Bears have faced off since the Lions' inception in 1930, when they were known as the Portsmouth Spartans, with the Spartans winning, 7–6, and Chicago winning the second meeting, 14–6. Since then, the Bears have led the series, 99–74–5. The rivalry grew in 1932, when the Bears and Spartans met in the first-ever postseason game in NFL history, with the Bears winning the game 9–0. The game also was known as the first "indoor football" game, as the game took place in indoor Chicago Stadium due to a blizzard at the time. The game also started the forward pass.


title: Chicago Bears

text: The Bears originally had an intense intra-city rivalry with the Chicago Cardinals, lasting until 1959 when the Cardinals moved to St. Louis. The rivalry's importance waned further after the Cardinals relocated to the Phoenix metropolitan area in 1988 and eventually became the Arizona Cardinals. While it is the oldest continuing matchup in the NFL, the Bears and Cardinals have yet to meet in the playoffs. The Bears lead the all-time series 59–28–6, and during the Cardinals' tenure in Chicago, the Bears went 47–19–6 against them.


title: Chicago Bears

text: The Bears and the New York Giants squared off in six NFL championship games, more than any common matchup in either the NFL championship game or Super Bowl. The Bears won four of the six championship games, which included the Sneakers Game that the Giants won in the 1934 NFL Championship Game. The two teams also met in the 1985 and 1990 playoffs, splitting each meeting en route to a Super Bowl championship (Bears in Super Bowl XX, Giants in Super Bowl XXV). The Bears lead the all-time series 36–24–2.


title: Chicago Bears

text: Soldier Field, located on Lake Shore Drive in Chicago, is the current home of the Bears. The Bears moved to Soldier Field in 1971 after outgrowing Wrigley Field, the team's home for 50 years. Northwestern University's residential neighbors objected to their playing at Dyche Stadium, now called Ryan Field. After the AFL-NFL Merger, the newly merged league wanted their teams to play in stadiums that could hold at least 50,000 fans. Even with the portable bleachers that the team brought into Wrigley, the stadium could still only hold 46,000. Soldier Field's playing turf was changed from natural grass to astroturf before the 1971 season, and then back to natural grass in time for the start of the 1988 season. The stadium was the site of the infamous Fog Bowl playoff game between the Bears and Philadelphia Eagles.


title: Chicago Bears

text: In 2002, the stadium was closed and rebuilt with only the exterior wall of the stadium being preserved. It was closed on Sunday, January 20, 2002, a day after the Bears lost in the playoffs. It reopened on September 27, 2003, after a complete rebuild (the second in the stadium's history). Many fans refer to the rebuilt stadium as "New Soldier Field". During the season, the Bears played their home games at the University of Illinois' Memorial Stadium in Champaign, where they went 3–5.


title: Chicago Bears

text: Many critics have negative views of the new stadium. They believe that its current structure has made it more of an eyesore than a landmark; some have dubbed it the "Mistake on the Lake". Soldier Field was stripped of its National Historic Landmark designation on February 17, 2006.


title: Chicago Bears

text: In the 2005 season, the Bears won the NFC North Division and the No. 2 Seed in the NFC Playoffs, entitling them to play at least one home game in the postseason. The team hosted (and lost) their divisional round match on January 15, 2006, against the Carolina Panthers. This was the first playoff game at Soldier Field since the stadium reopened.


title: Chicago Bears

text: The stadium's end zones and midfield were not painted until the 1982 season. The design sported on the field included the bolded word "Chicago" rendered in Highway Gothic in both end zones. In 1983, the end zone design returned, with the addition of a large wishbone "C" Bears logo painted at midfield. These field markings remained unchanged until the 1996 season. In 1996 the midfield wishbone "C" was changed to a large blue Bears head, and the end zone design were painted with "Bears" in cursive. This new design remained until the 1999 season, at which point the artwork was returned to the classic "Chicago" and the "C". In the new Soldier Field, the artwork was tweaked to where one end zone had the word "Chicago" bolded and the other had "Bears".


title: Chicago Bears

text: In June 2021, the Bears submitted a bid to purchase the Arlington International Racecourse in Arlington Heights, Illinois from Churchill Downs. Despite negotiations between the city of Chicago to upgrade Soldier Field, the Bears entered into an agreement with Churchill Downs to purchase the Arlington International Racecourse in September 2021 for $197.2 million. The sale of the property which includes 326 acres of potential space for development is expected to close in late 2022 or early 2023.


title: Chicago Bears

text: While the Super Bowl XX champion Bears were a fixture of mainstream American pop culture in the 1980s, the Bears made a prior mark with the 1971 American TV movie "Brian's Song" starring Billy Dee Williams as Gale Sayers and James Caan as Brian Piccolo. The film told of how Piccolo helped Sayers recover from a devastating knee injury to return to his status as one of the league's best players, and how Sayers in turn helped the Piccolo family through Brian's fatal illness. A 2001 remake of the movie for ABC starred Sean Maher as Piccolo and Mekhi Phifer as Sayers.


title: Chicago Bears

text: The 1985 team is also remembered for recording the song "The Super Bowl Shuffle", which reached number forty-one on the "Billboard" Hot 100 and was nominated for a Grammy Award. The music video for the song depicts the team rapping that they are "not here to start no trouble" but instead "just here to do the Super Bowl Shuffle". The team took a risk by recording and releasing the song before the playoffs had even begun, but were able to avoid embarrassment by going on to win Super Bowl XX by a then-record margin of 46–10. That game was one of the most-watched television events in history according to the Nielsen ratings system; the game had a rating of 48.3, ranking it seventh in all-time television history.


title: Chicago Bears

text: In addition to the "Super Bowl Shuffle" rap song, the Bears' success in the 1980s – and especially the personality of head coach Mike Ditka – inspired a recurring sketch on the American sketch comedy program "Saturday Night Live", called "Bill Swerski's Superfans". The sketch featured "Cheers" co-star George Wendt, a Chicago native, as host of a radio talk-show (similar in tone to WGN radio's "The Sportswriters"), with co-panelists Carl Wollarski (Robert Smigel), Pat Arnold (Mike Myers) and Todd O'Connor (Chris Farley). To hear them tell it, "Da Bears" and Coach Ditka could do no wrong. The sketch stopped after Ditka was fired in 1993. The sketch usually showed the panelists chugging beer and eating lots of Polish sausage, and often featured Todd getting so agitated about what was happening with the Bears that he suffered a heart attack, but quickly recovered (through self-administered CPR). The sketch also features the cast predicting unrealistic blowout victories for Bears games. Da Super Fan sketch has not been brought back by "SNL", with the exception of a single appearance by Horatio Sanz as a Super Fan for the Cubs on "Weekend Update" in 2003. Outside of "SNL", George Wendt reprised his role of Swerski in the opening promo of Super Bowl XL on ABC.


title: Chicago Bears

text: On TV shows based in Chicago such as "The Bob Newhart Show", "Married... with Children", "Family Matters", "Still Standing", "According to Jim", "Early Edition" and "The Bernie Mac Show", the main characters are all Bears fans, and have worn Bears' jerseys and T-shirts on some occasions. Some episodes even show them watching Bears games. "Roseanne" is another TV show based in Illinois (albeit not in Chicago itself) to feature the Bears as the consensus household favorite, as 'Dan Connor' John Goodman is seen wearing Bears hats in several episodes. "That '70s Show" featured several Bears references, as it was based in Wisconsin, home of the Packers. On one episode while the gang is at a Bears vs. Packers game, Eric comes to the seat in a Walter Payton jersey and is booed by the surrounding Packers fans. In an episode of the Disney Channel show "Shake It Up", based in Chicago, recurring character Dina Garcia (Ainsley Bailey) sold scalped Chicago Bears tickets. More recently, "Modern Family" character Cameron Tucker has been shown as a Bears fan. In an episode of the Disney Channel show "I Didn't Do It", based in Chicago, Lindy Watson (Olivia Holt) and Logan Watson (Austin North) try to get a football signed by NFL Hall of Famer Dick Butkus after destroying their fathers Butkus signed ball, Alshon Jeffery also makes a cameo appearance as well.


title: Chicago Bears

text: Ditka's success and popularity in Chicago has led him to land analyst roles on various American football pregame shows. Ditka worked for both the "NFL on NBC" and CBS's "The NFL Today", and he currently works on ESPN's "Sunday NFL Countdown" and provided Friday night analysis on the Bears on WBBM-TV's "2 on Football" with former WBBM-TV sports director Mark Malone. He is also the color analyst for all local broadcasts of Bears preseason games. Ditka also co-starred himself alongside actor Will Ferrell in the 2005 comedy film "Kicking & Screaming".


title: Chicago Bears

text: Also, Ditka, Dick Butkus, Walter Payton, Jim McMahon, William "Refrigerator" Perry and Brian Urlacher are among Bears figures known for their appearances in TV commercials. Urlacher, whose jersey was among the league's best-selling in 2002, was featured on Nike commercials with former Atlanta Falcons quarterback Michael Vick.


title: Chicago Bears

text: In the 1961 Hanna-Barbera animated short "Rah Rah Bear", Yogi Bear helps the Bears beat the New York Giants.


title: Chicago Bears

text: The Bears were later depicted in an episode of the 1985 cartoon version of the NBC sitcom "Punky Brewster", where the Bears are playing the Green Bay Packers.


title: Chicago Bears

text: Clark Griswold (Chevy Chase) from the "National Lampoon's Vacation series" appears in some scenes wearing a navy blue with burnt orange scripting Chicago Bears ball cap. He wears the same Chicago Bears cap throughout all four "Vacation" movies.


title: Chicago Bears

text: Currently, WBBM (780 AM) and its simulcasting partner, WCFS-FM (105.9 FM) broadcast Bears games with Jeff Joniak doing the play-by-play, along with color commentator Tom Thayer, who played for the Bears from 1985 to 1992, and sideline reporter Zach Zaidman. Over the years, many Bears play-by-play broadcasters have included play-by-play announcers Jack Brickhouse, Joe McConnell and Wayne Larrivee, and color commentators Hub Arkush, Dick Butkus, Jim Hart and Irv Kupcinet.


title: Chicago Bears

text: Spanish radio station WLEY-FM aired the Bears games from 2012 to 2014. Since 2015, WRTO and WVIV-FM air Bears games in Spanish.


title: Chicago Bears

text: Preseason games air on WFLD (channel 32). The announcers are Sam Rosen (play-by-play), Erik Kramer (color commentary) and Lou Canellis (sideline reporter). WFLD also carries the majority of the team's regular season games through the "NFL on Fox". Any Bears home games against AFC teams are aired on the CBS O&O station, WBBM-TV, which was the Bears' unofficial "home" station from 1956 until Fox won the NFC rights in 1995. Sunday Night games are broadcast on WMAQ-TV, the NBC O&O station, with "ESPN Monday Night Football" games rotating between WLS-TV and WCIU-TV (dependent on opponent, along with ABC's Monday night entertainment schedule).


title: Chicago Bears

text: Patrick Mannelly holds the record for the most seasons in a Bears uniform with 16. On the other hand, Steve McMichael holds the record for most consecutive games played by a Bear with 191; he accomplished the feat from 1981 to 1993. In second place is Payton, who played 186 games from 1975 to 1987 at running back, a position considered to be conducive to injury, only missing one game in a span of 13 seasons.


title: Chicago Bears

text: Kicker Robbie Gould became the Bears' all-time scoring leader in Week 5 of 2015 season overtaking placekicker Kevin Butler who previously held the club record for scoring the most points in his ten-year Bear career. He scored 1,116 points as the Bears kicker from 1985 to 1995. He is followed by running back Walter Payton, with 750 points. Payton holds the team record for career rushing yards with 16,726. That was an NFL record until Emmitt Smith of the Dallas Cowboys broke it in . Former Bears running back Matt Forte, who started playing for the Bears in 2008, is the closest to Payton's record with 6,985 yards. Forte also holds the team's single season record for rookies in rushing attempts, rushing yards and receptions. Mark Bortz holds the record for most Bear playoff appearances, with 13 between 1983 and 1994, and is followed by Kevin Butler, Dennis Gentry, Dan Hampton, Jay Hilgenberg, Steve McMichael, Ron Rivera, Mike Singletary, and Keith Van Horne, who have each played in 12 playoff games.


title: Chicago Bears

text: The 1940 Chicago Bears team holds the record for the biggest margin of victory in an NFL game (playoff or regular season) with a 73–0 victory over the Washington Redskins in the 1940 NFL Championship Game. The largest home victory for the Bears came in a 61–7 result against the Green Bay Packers in 1980. The largest defeat in club history was a 52–0 loss against the Baltimore Colts in 1964. The club recorded undefeated regular seasons in 1934 and 1942, but (unlike the 1972 Dolphins) did not win the championship game in either season. In 1934, the club completed a 13–0 record but were defeated by the New York Giants, and in 1942 the club completed an 11–0 record but were defeated by the Redskins. Had the Bears won either championship, the club would have completed a championship three-peat – a feat completed only by the Packers (twice), although no team has done it since the AFL-NFL merger. Halas holds the team record for coaching the most seasons with 40 and for having the most career victories of 324. Halas' victories record stood until Don Shula surpassed Halas in . Ditka is the closest Bears coach to Halas, with 112 career victories. No other Bears coach has recorded over 100 victories with the team.


title: Chicago Bears

text: During the 2006 season, return specialist Devin Hester set several kick return records. He currently holds the franchise record for most return yards with 2,261. He had six touchdown returns, setting a record for most returns in a single season. In 2007, he recorded another six touchdown season from returns. One of the most notable of these returns came on November 12, 2006, when he returned a missed field goal for a 108-yard touchdown. The record tied former teammate Nathan Vasher's previous record, which was set almost a year earlier. Additionally, Hester set a Super Bowl record by becoming the first player to return an opening kick of a Super Bowl for a touchdown. On December 20, 2010, Hester set an NFL record for most touchdowns on a punt or kickoff return with his 14th career return coming against the Minnesota Vikings. In 2011, Hester broke the record for the most punt returns against the Carolina Panthers.


title: Chicago Bears

text: In 2012, Charles Tillman set the record for most forced fumbles in a single game with 4 against the Tennessee Titans. Also against the Titans, Chicago became the first team in league history to score a touchdown pass, a touchdown run, an interception return for a touchdown, and a blocked kick/punt for a score in the same quarter. Tillman and teammate Lance Briggs became the first pair in NFL history to return an interception for a touchdown in consecutive games against the Jacksonville Jaguars and Dallas Cowboys.


title: Chicago Bears

text: This is a partial list of the Bears' last five completed seasons. For the full season-by-season franchise results, see List of Chicago Bears seasons.


title: Chicago Bears

text: "Note: The Finish, Wins, Losses, and Ties columns list regular season results and exclude any postseason play."


title: Chicago Bears

text: In the Pro Football Hall of Fame, the Bears have the most enshrined primary members with 30; the club also has had seven Hall of Famers spend a minor portion of their career with the franchise. Founder, owner, head coach, and player George Halas, halfback Bronko Nagurski, and Red Grange were a part of the original class of inductees in 1963. The franchise saw 14 individuals inducted into the Hall of Fame from 1963 to 1967. Offensive tackle Jim Covert and defensive end Ed Sprinkle are the most recent Chicago Bear inductees, both being inducted as seniors as part of the Pro Football Hall of Fame's centennial class of 2020.


title: Chicago Bears

text: The Bears have retired 14 uniform numbers, which is the most in the NFL, and ranks fourth behind the basketball Boston Celtics (23), baseball New York Yankees (21), and hockey Montreal Canadiens (15) for the most in major professional sports leagues in the United States and Canada. The Bears retired Mike Ditka's number 89 jersey on December 9, 2013. It is the last number that the Bears retired.


title: Chicago Bears

text: In honor of the team centennial anniversary, on May 20, 2019, the Chicago Bears have unveiled the Top 100 players in franchise history, as voted on by Hall of Fame writers Don Pierson and Dan Pompei, two of the most famous journalists that have ever covered the club in their long history. At the time of the publish, the list included 27 Pro Football Hall of Famers, while two more inductees would join in the 2020 class (Jim Covert and Ed Sprinkle).


title: Chicago Bears

text: Among the 100 Greatest, four active players made the list, including safety Eddie Jackson (96), defensive lineman Akiem Hicks (75), offensive lineman Kyle Long (74) and highest-ranked active Bear was Khalil Mack (60), who played only one season with the team at the time of the unveilment of the list. Long would retire the following year.


title: Chicago Bears

text: On later date, Chicagobears.com released a list titled "Top 10: Best of the rest", that featured the top 10 snubs from the centennial list. The players include (in a following order): Alex Brown, Thomas Jones, Dave Whitsell, Curtis Conway, Tim Jennings, Leslie Frazier, Roberto Garza, Marty Booker, Nathan Vasher and William Perry.


title: Chicago Bears

text: During the week of June 3, 2019 the All-Time Team was announced in parts each day starting with the All-Time defensive players, followed by the All-Time specialists and then the All-Time offensive players. Bold indicates those elected to the Pro Football Hall of Fame.


title: Chicago Bears

text: Larry Mayer of the Chicagobears.com would later state, that according to the voters "if they had included a long-snapper on the team it would have been Patrick Mannelly".


title: Beck

text: Beck David Hansen (born Bek David Campbell; July 8, 1970) is an American musician, singer, songwriter, and record producer. He rose to fame in the early 1990s with his experimental and lo-fi style, and became known for creating musical collages of wide-ranging genres. He has musically encompassed folk, funk, soul, hip hop, electronic, alternative rock, country, and psychedelia. He has released 14 studio albums (three of which were released on indie labels), as well as several non-album singles and a book of sheet music.


title: Beck

text: Born and raised in Los Angeles, Beck grew towards hip-hop and folk in his teens and began to perform locally at coffeehouses and clubs. He moved to New York City in 1989 and became involved in the city's anti-folk movement. Returning to Los Angeles in the early 1990s, he cut his breakthrough single "Loser", which became a worldwide hit in 1994, and released his first major album, "Mellow Gold", the same year. "Odelay", released in 1996, topped critic polls and won several awards. He released the country-influenced, twangy "Mutations" in 1998, and the funk-infused "Midnite Vultures" in 1999. The soft-acoustic "Sea Change" in 2002 showcased a more serious Beck, and 2005's "Guero" returned to "Odelay"s sample-based production. "The Information" in 2006 was inspired by electro-funk, hip hop, and psychedelia; 2008's "Modern Guilt" was inspired by '60s pop music; and 2014's folk-infused "Morning Phase" won Album of the Year at the 57th Grammy Awards. His 2017 album, "Colors", won awards for Best Alternative Album and Best Engineered Album at the 61st Annual Grammy Awards. His fourteenth studio album, "Hyperspace", was released on November 22, 2019.


title: Beck

text: With a pop art collage of musical styles, oblique and ironic lyrics, and postmodern arrangements incorporating samples, drum machines, live instrumentation and sound effects, Beck has been hailed by critics and the public throughout his musical career as being among the most idiosyncratically creative musicians of 1990s and 2000s alternative rock. Two of Beck's most popular and acclaimed recordings are "Odelay" and "Sea Change", both of which were ranked on "Rolling Stone" list of the 500 greatest albums of all time. The four-time platinum artist has collaborated with several artists and has made several contributions to soundtracks.


title: Beck

text: Beck was born Bek David Campbell in Los Angeles, California, on July 8, 1970, the son of American visual artist Bibbe Hansen and Canadian arranger, composer, and conductor David Campbell. Bibbe Hansen grew up amid Andy Warhol's The Factory art scene of the 1960s in New York City and was a Warhol superstar. She moved to California at age 17 and met Campbell there. Beck's maternal grandfather, artist Al Hansen, was of Norwegian descent and was a pioneer in the avant-garde Fluxus movement. Beck's maternal grandmother was Jewish, and Beck has said that he considers himself Jewish because he was "raised celebrating Jewish holidays".


title: Beck

text: Beck was born in a rooming house near downtown Los Angeles. As a child, he lived in a declining neighborhood near Hollywood Boulevard. He later recalled, "By the time we left there, they were ripping out miles of houses en masse and building low-rent, giant apartment blocks." The working-class family struggled financially, moving to Hoover and Ninth Street, a neighborhood populated primarily by Koreans and Salvadorian refugees. He was sent for a time to live with his paternal grandparents in Kansas, later remarking that he thought "they were kind of concerned" about his "weird" home life. Since his paternal grandfather was a Presbyterian minister, Beck grew up influenced by church music and hymns. He also spent time in Europe with his maternal grandfather.


title: Beck

text: After his parents separated when he was 10, Beck stayed with his mother and brother Channing in Los Angeles, where he was influenced by the city's diverse musical offerings—everything from hip hop to Latin music and his mother's art scene—all of which would later reappear in his work. Beck obtained his first guitar at 16 and became a street musician, often playing Lead Belly covers at Lafayette Park. During his teens, Beck discovered the music of Sonic Youth, Pussy Galore, and X, but remained uninterested in most music outside the folk genre until many years into his career. The first contemporary music that made a direct connection with Beck was hip hop, which he first heard on Grandmaster Flash records in the early 1980s. Growing up in a predominantly Latin district, he found himself the only white child at his school, and quickly learned how to breakdance. When he was 17, Beck grew fascinated after hearing a Mississippi John Hurt record at a friend's house, and spent hours in his room trying to emulate Hurt's finger-picking techniques. Shortly thereafter, Beck explored blues and folk music further, discovering Woody Guthrie and Blind Willie Johnson.


title: Beck

text: Feeling like "a total outcast", Beck dropped out of school after junior high. He later said that although he felt school was important, he felt unsafe there. When he applied to the new performing arts high school downtown, he was rejected. His brother took him to post-Beat jazz places in Echo Park and Silver Lake. He hung out at the Los Angeles City College, perusing records, books and old sheet music in its library. He used a fake ID to sit in on classes there, and he also befriended a literature instructor and his poet wife. He worked at a string of menial jobs, including loading trucks and operating a leaf blower.


title: Beck

text: Beck began as a folk musician, switching between country blues, Delta blues, and more traditional rural folk music in his teenage years. He began performing on city buses, often covering Mississippi John Hurt alongside original, sometimes improvisational compositions. "I'd get on the bus and start playing Mississippi John Hurt with totally improvised lyrics. Some drunk would start yelling at me, calling me Axl Rose. So I'd start singing about Axl Rose and the levee and bus passes and strychnine, mixing the whole thing up," he later recalled. He was also in a band called Youthless that hosted Dadaist-inspired freeform events at city coffee shops. "We had Radio Shack mics and this homemade speaker and we'd draft people in the audience to recite comic books or do a beatbox thing, or we'd tie the whole audience up in masking tape," Beck recalled.


title: Beck

text: In 1989, Beck caught a bus to New York City with little more than $8.00 and a guitar. He spent the summer attempting to find a job and a place to live with little success. Beck eventually began to frequent Manhattan's Lower East Side and stumbled upon the tail end of the East Village's anti-folk scene's first wave. Beck became involved in a loose posse of acoustic musicians—including Cindy Lee Berryhill, Kirk Kelly, Paleface, and Lach, headed by Roger Manning—whose raggedness and eccentricity placed them well outside the acoustic mainstream. "The whole mission was to destroy all the clichés and make up some new ones," said Beck of his New York years. "Everybody knew each other. You could go up onstage and say anything, and you wouldn't feel weird or feel any pressure." Inspired by that freedom and by the local spoken-word performers, Beck began to write free-associative, surrealistic songs about pizza, MTV, and working at McDonald's, turning mundane thoughts into songs. Beck was roommates with Paleface, sleeping on his couch and attending open mic nights together. Daunted by the prospect of another homeless New York winter, Beck returned to his home of Los Angeles in early 1991. "I was tired of being cold, tired of getting beat up," he later remarked. "It was hard to be in New York with no money, no place [...] I kinda used up all the friends I had. Everyone on the scene got sick of me."


title: Beck

text: Back in Los Angeles, Beck began to work at a video store in the Silver Lake neighborhood, "doing things like alphabetizing the pornography section". He began performing in arthouse clubs and coffeehouses such as Al's Bar and Raji's. In order to keep indifferent audiences engaged in his music, Beck would play in a spontaneous, joking manner. "I'd be banging away on a Son House tune and the whole audience would be talking. So maybe out of desperation or boredom, or the audience's boredom, I'd make up these ridiculous songs just to see if people were listening," he later remarked. Virtually an unknown to the public and an enigma to those who met him, Beck would hop onstage between acts in local clubs and play "strange folk songs", accompanied by "what could best be described as performance art" while sometimes wearing a "Star Wars" stormtrooper mask. Beck met someone who offered to help record demos in his living room, and he began to pass cassette tapes around.


title: Beck

text: Eventually, Beck gained key boosters in Margaret Mittleman, the West Coast's director of talent acquisitions for BMG Music Publishing, and the partners behind independent record label Bong Load Custom Records: Tom Rothrock, Rob Schnapf and Brad Lambert. Schnapf saw Beck perform at Jabberjaw and felt he would suit their small venture. Beck expressed a loose interest in hip hop, and Rothrock introduced him to Carl Stephenson, a record producer for Rap-A-Lot Records. In 1992, Beck visited Stephenson's home to collaborate. The result—the slide-sampling hip hop track "Loser"—was a one-off experiment that Beck set aside, going back to his folk songs, making his home tapes such as "Golden Feelings", and releasing several independent singles.


title: Beck

text: By 1993, Beck was living in a rat-infested shed near a Los Angeles alleyway with little money. Bong Load issued "Loser" as a single in March 1993 on 12" vinyl with only 500 copies pressed. Beck felt that "Loser" was mediocre, and only agreed to its release at Rothrock's insistence. "Loser" unexpectedly received radio airplay, starting in Los Angeles, where college radio station KXLU was the first to play it, and later on Santa Monica College radio station KCRW, where radio host Chris Douridas played the song on "Morning Becomes Eclectic", the station's flagship music program. "I called the record label that day and asked to have Beck play live on the air," Douridas said. "He came in that Friday, rapped to a tape of 'Loser' and did his song 'MTV Makes Me Want to Smoke Crack.'" That night, Beck performed at the Los Angeles club Cafe Troy to a packed audience and talent scouts from major labels. The song then spread to Seattle through KNDD The End, and KROQ-FM began playing the song on an almost hourly basis. As Bong Load struggled to press more copies of "Loser", Beck was beset with offers to sign with major labels. During the bidding war in November, Beck spent several days in Olympia, Washington, recording material with Calvin Johnson of Beat Happening, which would later see release the following year on Johnson's K Records as "One Foot in the Grave".


title: Beck

text: A fierce bidding war ensued, with Geffen Records A&R director Mark Kates signing Beck in December 1993 amid intense competition from Warner Bros. and Capitol. Beck's non-exclusive contract with Geffen allowed him an unusual amount of creative freedom, with Beck remaining free to release material through such small, independent labels as Flipside, which issued the sprawling, 25-track collection of pre-"Loser" recordings titled "Stereopathetic Soulmanure" on February 22 the following year. By the time Beck released his first album for Geffen, the low-budget, genre-blending "Mellow Gold" on March 1, "Loser" was already in the top 40 and its video in MTV's Buzz Bin. "Loser" quickly ascended the charts in the U.S., reaching a peak of number ten on the "Billboard" Hot 100 singles chart and topping the Modern Rock Tracks chart. The song also charted in the UK, Australia, New Zealand, and throughout Europe. Beck's newfound position of attention led to his characterization as the "King of Slackers", as the media dubbed him the center of the new so-called "slacker" movement. Critics, feeling it the essential follow-up to Radiohead's "Creep", found vacantness in the lyrics of "Loser" strongly associated with Generation X, although Beck himself strongly contested his position as the face of the "slacker" generation: "Slacker my "ass". I mean, I "never" had any slack. I was working a $4-an-hour job trying to stay alive. That slacker stuff is for people who have the time to be depressed about everything."


title: Beck

text: Feeling as though he was "constantly trying to prove myself", Beck suffered a backlash, with skeptics denouncing him as a self-indulgent fake and the latest marketing opportunity. In the summer of 1994, Beck was struggling and many of his fellow musicians thought he had lost his way. Combined with the song's wildly popular music video and the world tour, Beck reacted believing the attention could not last, resulting in a status as a "one-hit wonder". At other concerts, crowds were treated to twenty minutes of reggae or Miles Davis or jazz-punk iterations of "Loser". At one-day festivals in California, he surrounded himself with an artnoise combo. The drummer set fire to his cymbals; the lead guitarist "played" his guitar with the strings faced towards his body; and Beck changed the words to "Loser" so that nobody could sing along. "I can't tell you how many times I was looking at faces that were looking back at me with complete bewilderment—or just pointing and shaking their heads and laughing—while performing during that period," he later recalled. Despite this, Beck gained the respect of his peers, such as Tom Petty and Johnny Cash, and created an entire wave of bands determined to recapture the "Mellow Gold" sound. Feeling his previous releases were just collections of demos recorded over the course of several years, Beck desired to enter the studio and record an album in a continuous linear fashion, which became "Odelay".


title: Beck

text: Beck blends country, blues, rap, jazz and rock on "Odelay", the result of a year and half of feverish "cutting, pasting, layering, dubbing, and, of course, sampling". Each day, the musicians started from scratch, often working on songs for 16 hours straight. "Odelay"s conception lies in an unfinished studio album Beck first embarked on following the success of "Loser", chronicling the difficult time he experienced: "There was a cycle of everyone dying around me," he recalled later. He was constantly recording, and eventually put together an album of somber, orchestrated folk tunes; one that, perhaps, "could have been a commercial blockbuster along with similarly themed work by Smashing Pumpkins, Nine Inch Nails and Nirvana". Instead, Beck plucked one song from it—the "Odelay" album closer "Ramshackle"—and shelved the rest ("Brother" and "Feather In Your Cap" were, however, later released as B-sides). Beck was introduced to the Dust Brothers, producers of the Beastie Boys' album "Paul's Boutique", whose cut-and-paste, sample-heavy production suited Beck's vision of a more fun, accessible album. After a record executive explained that "Odelay" would be a "huge mistake", he spent many months thinking "that I'd blown it forever".


title: Beck

text: "Odelay" was released on June 18, 1996, to commercial success and critical acclaim. The record produced several hit singles, including "Where It's At", "Devils Haircut", and "The New Pollution", and was nominated for the Grammy Award for Album of the Year in 1997, winning a Grammy Award for Best Alternative Music Album as well as a Grammy Award for Best Male Rock Vocal Performance for "Where It's At". During one busy week in January 1997, he landed his Grammy nominations, appeared on "Saturday Night Live" and "Howard Stern", and did a last-minute trot on "The Rosie O'Donnell Show". The combined buzz gave "Odelay" a second wind, leading to an expanded fan base and additional exposure Beck enjoyed but, like several executives at Geffen, was bewildered by the success of "Odelay". He would often get recognized in public, which made him feel strange. "It's just weird. It doesn't feel right. It doesn't feel natural to me. I don't think I was made for that. I was never good at that," he later told Pitchfork. "Odelay" sold two million copies and put "one-hit wonder" criticisms to rest. During this time, he contributed the song "Deadweight" to the soundtrack of the film "A Life Less Ordinary" (1997).


title: Beck

text: Having not been in a proper studio since "Deadweight", Beck felt anxious to "go in and just do some stuff real quick", and compiled several songs he had had for years. Beck and his bandmates hammered out fourteen songs in fourteen days, although just twelve made it onto the album, 1998's "Mutations". Beck decided on Nigel Godrich, producer for Radiohead's "OK Computer" the previous year, to be behind the boards for the project. Godrich was leaving the United States for England in a short time, which led to the album's quick production schedule—"No looking back, no doctoring anything". The whole point of the record was to capture the performance of the musicians live, an uncharacteristic far-cry from the cut-and-paste aesthetic of "Odelay". Though the album was originally slated for release by Bong Load Records, Geffen intervened and issued the record against Beck's wishes. The artist then sought to void his contracts with both record labels, and in turn the labels sued him for breach of contract. The litigation went on for years and it remains unclear to this day if it has ever been completely resolved. Beck was later awarded Best Alternative Music Performance for "Mutations" at the 42nd Grammy Awards.


title: Beck

text: "Midnite Vultures", Beck's next studio effort, was originally recorded as a double album, and more than 25 nearly completed songs were left behind. In the studio, Beck and producers studied contemporary hip hop and R&B, specifically R. Kelly, in order to embrace and incorporate those influences in the way Al Green and Stax records had done in previous decades. In July 1998, a core group began to assemble at Beck's Pasadena home: bassist Justin Meldal-Johnsen, keyboardist Roger Joseph Manning Jr., and producer-engineers Mickey Petralia and Tony Hoffer. Dozens of session players passed through, including Beck's father, David Campbell, who played viola and arranged some of the strings. The musicians held communal meals and mountain-bike rides on dusty trails nearby, but remained focused on Beck's instructions: to make an up-tempo album that would be fun to play on tour night after night. "I had so many things going on", said Beck of the recording process. "I had a couple of rooms of computers hooked up, I was doing B sides for Japan, I was programming beats in one room and someone would be cooking dinner in the other room." In November 1999, Geffen released the much-anticipated "Midnite Vultures", which attracted confusion: "fans and critics misguidedly worried whether it was serious or a goof," and as a result, "The New York Times" wrote that the album "never won the audience it deserved". The record was supported by an extensive world tour. For Beck, it was a return to the high-energy performances that had been his trademark as far back as Lollapalooza. The live stage set included a red bed that descended from the ceiling for the song "Debra", and the touring band was complemented by a brass section. "Midnite Vultures" was nominated for Best Album at the 43rd Annual Grammy Awards.


title: Beck

text: In 2000, Beck and his fiancée, stylist Leigh Limon, ended their nine-year relationship. Beck lapsed into a period of melancholy and introspection, during which he wrote the bleak, acoustic-based tracks later found on "Sea Change". Beck sat on the songs, not wanting to talk about his personal life; he later said that he wanted to focus on music and "not really strew my baggage across the public lobby". Eventually, however, he decided the songs spoke to a common experience (a relationship breakup), and that it would not seem self-indulgent to record them. In 2001, Beck drifted back to the songs and called producer Nigel Godrich.


title: Beck

text: Retailers initially predicted that the album would not receive much radio support, but they also believed that Beck's maverick reputation and critical acclaim, in addition to the possibility of multiple Grammy nominations, might offset "Sea Change"s noncommercial sound. "Sea Change", issued by Geffen in September 2002, was regardless a commercial hit and critical darling, with "Rolling Stone" revering it as "the best album Beck has ever made, [...] an impeccable album of truth and light from the end of love. This is his "Blood on the Tracks"." The album was later listed by the magazine as one of the best records of the decade and of all-time, and it also placed second on the year's Pazz & Jop Critics Poll. "Sea Change" yielded a low-key, theater-based acoustic tour, as well as a larger tour with The Flaming Lips as Beck's opening and backing band. Beck was playful and energetic, sometimes throwing in covers of The Rolling Stones, Big Star, The Zombies and The Velvet Underground.


title: Beck

text: Following the release of "Sea Change", Beck felt newer compositions were sketches for something more evolved in the same direction, and wrote nearly 35 more songs in the coming months, keeping demos of them on tapes in a suitcase. During his solo tour, the tapes were left backstage during a stop in Washington, D.C., and Beck was never able to recover them. It was disheartening to the musician, who felt the two years of songwriting represented something more technically complex. As a result, Beck took a break and wrote no original compositions in 2003. Feeling as though it might take him a while to "get back to that [songwriting] territory", he entered the studio with Dust Brothers to complete a project that dated back to "Odelay". Nearly half of the songs had existed since the 1990s.


title: Beck

text: "Guero", Beck's eighth studio album, was recorded over the span of nine months during which several significant events occurred in his life: his girlfriend, Marissa Ribisi, became pregnant; they were married; their son, Cosimo, was born; and they moved out of Silver Lake. The collaboration with the Dust Brothers, his second, was notable for their use of high-tech measures to achieve a lo-fi sound. For example, after recording a "sonically perfect" version of a song at one of the nicest recording studios in Hollywood, the Dust Brothers processed it in an Echoplex to create a gritty, reverb-heavy sound: "We did this high-tech recording and ran it through a transistor radio. It sounded too good, that was the problem." Initially due to be released in October 2004, "Guero" faced delays and did not come out until March 2005, though unmastered copies of the tracks surfaced online in January.


title: Beck

text: "Guero" debuted at number two on the "Billboard" 200, selling 162,000 copies, an all-time sales high. Lead single "E-Pro" peaked at number one at Modern Rock radio, making it his first chart-topper since "Loser". Beck, inspired by the Nintendocore remix scene and feeling a connection with its lo-fi, home-recording method, collaborated with artists 8-Bit and Paza on "Hell Yes", an EP issued in February 2005. In December 2005, Geffen also issued "Guerolito", a fully reworked version of "Guero" featuring remixes by the Beastie Boys' Ad-Rock, the Dust Brothers' John King and Scottish electronic duo Boards of Canada. "Guerolito" combines remixes previously heard as B-sides and new versions of album tracks to make a track-by-track reconfiguration of the album. Also released in 2005 was "A Brief Overview", a 12-track promotional-only "History of Beck" compilation CD sampler that featured a combination of older and newer Beck tracks.


title: Beck

text: "The Information", Beck's ninth studio album, began production around the same time as "Guero", in 2003. Working with producer Nigel Godrich, Beck built a studio in his garden, where they wrote many of the tracks. "The idea was to get people in a room together recording live, hitting bad notes and screaming," said Beck, adding that the album is best described as "introspective hip hop". Beck described the recording process as "painful", noting that he edited down songs constantly and he perhaps recorded the album three times. For the release, Beck was allowed for the first time to fulfill a long-running wish for an unconventional rollout: he made low-budget videos to accompany each song, packaged the CD with sheets of stickers so buyers could customize the cover, and leaked tracks and videos on his website months ahead of the album's release. Digital download releases automatically downloaded the song's additional video for each single sale, and physical copies came bundled with an additional DVD featuring fifteen videos.


title: Beck

text: In 2007, Beck released the single "Timebomb", which was nominated for a Grammy Award for Best Solo Rock Vocal Performance. For his next studio effort, his tenth, Beck tapped Danger Mouse to produce, and the two first met in December 2007 to record. The duo knocked out two tracks in two days, but the notion that the album would be finished in a timely fashion soon evaporated. Beck had known Danger Mouse casually before, as many of his former musicians ended up working with Danger Mouse's side project, Gnarls Barkley. Still, the musicians were surprised at how well they got along. Following the grueling recording schedule, Beck was exhausted, calling it "the most intense work I've ever done on anything", relating that he "did at least 10 weeks with no days off, until four or five in the morning every night." Beck's original vision was a short 10-track burst with two-minute songs, but the songs gradually grew as he fit 'two years of songwriting into two and a half months." "Modern Guilt" (2008) was "full of off-kilter rhythms and left-field breakdowns, with an overall 1960s vibe."


title: Beck

text: "Modern Guilt" was the final release in Beck's contract with Geffen Records. Beck, then 38, had held the contract since his early 20s. Released from his label contract and going independent, Beck began working more heavily on his own seven-year-old label, which went through a variety of names. His focus on smaller, more quixotic projects, Beck moonlighted as a producer, working with artists such as Charlotte Gainsbourg, Thurston Moore and Stephen Malkmus. Beck worked for five or six days a week at the small studio on his property in Malibu, and founded Record Club, a project whereby an entire classic album—by The Velvet Underground, Leonard Cohen, INXS, Yanni—would be covered by another singer in the span of a single day. Beck provided four songs for the film "Scott Pilgrim vs. the World" (2010), each attributed to the title character's fictional band, Sex Bob-Omb. Beck also collaborated with Philip Glass, Jack White, Tobacco of Black Moth Super Rainbow, Jamie Lidell, Seu Jorge, Childish Gambino, and The Lonely Island.


title: Beck

text: "Song Reader", a project Beck released in December 2012, is 20 songs presented only as sheet music, in the hopes that enterprising musicians will record their own versions. The idea of "Song Reader" came about nearly fifteen years prior, shortly after the release of "Odelay". When sent a book of transcribed sheet music for that album, Beck decided to play through it and grew interested in the world before recorded sound. He aimed to keep the arrangements as open as possible, to re-create the simplicity of the standards, and became preoccupied with creating only pieces that could fit within the Great American Songbook. In 2013 Beck began playing special "Song Reader" concerts with a variety of guests and announced he was working on a record of "Song Reader" material with other musicians as well as possibly a compilation of fan versions.


title: Beck

text: In the summer of 2013, Beck was reported to be working on two new studio albums: one a more self-contained acoustic disc in the vein of "One Foot in the Grave" and another described as a "proper follow-up" to "Modern Guilt". Beck expected to release both albums independently, and released two standalone singles over the course of the summer: the electro ballad "Defriended" and the chorus-heavy "I Won't Be Long". A third single, "Gimme", appeared on September 17. In October 2013, Beck signed to Capitol Records.


title: Beck

text: On January 20, 2014, Beck released the track "Blue Moon", which was to be the lead single for his twelfth studio album, "Morning Phase". On February 4, second single "Waking Light" was released, just prior to the official release of "Morning Phase" on February 21, 2014. For the recording of the album, Beck reunited with many of the same musicians with whom he had worked on the critically acclaimed 2002 album "Sea Change", and likely because of this, it has been noted that the two albums have a similar genre.


title: Beck

text: On February 8, 2015, at the 57th Annual Grammy Awards, "Morning Phase" won three Grammys: Best Engineered Album, Non-Classical; Best Rock Album; and Album of the Year. Upon receiving the Album of the Year award, the album beat out Pharrell Williams's "G I R L", Beyoncé's self-titled album, Sam Smith's "In the Lonely Hour", and Ed Sheeran's "x".


title: Beck

text: In the time after "Morning Phase"s release and general critical success, Beck mentioned that he had been working on another album at around the same time, but that the new album would be more of a pop record. Shortly after "Morning Phase"s Grammy wins, on June 15, 2015, Beck released the first single titled "Dreams" off this upcoming thirteenth studio album. "I was really trying to make something that would be good to play live," he said shortly after its release. However, no further word was heard from Beck pertaining to the release of the album. On June 2, 2016, almost a year after the initial release of "Dreams", Beck released a new single titled "Wow", along with a lyric video of the song and an announcement that his still untitled album would be released on October 21, 2016. In September 2016, the album was delayed with no new release date announced and, on September 24, Beck said he did not know "when it's coming out. It's probably in a few months." Once again, however, no further singles were released and no new release date was scheduled for the album.


title: Beck

text: On September 8, 2017, Beck released the single "Dear Life", which was quickly followed up with the official release of "Up All Night" on September 18. "Colors" was released on October 13, 2017. It was recorded at co-executive producer Greg Kurstin's Los Angeles studio, with Beck and Kurstin playing nearly every instrument themselves. The experimental pop-fused record received generally positive reviews from critics. The song 'Colors' from the album of the same name was included on the soundtrack for Forza Horizon 4 featuring on the track list for the 'Pulse' radio station in-game. On July 18, 2018, Beck performed the title track "Colors", and the first single "Wow" on "The Late Show with Stephen Colbert".


title: Beck

text: On April 15, 2019, Beck released a single co-produced with Pharrell Williams titled "Saw Lightning" from his fourteenth studio album, titled "Hyperspace". The song "Dark Places" was released on November 6, with the album being released on November 22.


title: Beck

text: In 1999, Beck contributed to a tribute album for Bruce Haack and Esther Nelson and their label Dimension 5 Records. The album, Dimension Mix, released in 2005, was a benefit for Cure Autism Now that was produced by Ross Harris, an early collaborator who designed the artwork for "Mellow Gold".


title: Beck

text: On June 20, 2009, Beck announced that he was starting an experiment called Record Club, in which he and other musicians would record cover versions of entire albums in one day. The first album covered by Beck's Record Club was "The Velvet Underground & Nico". Starting on June 18, the club began posting covers of songs from the album on Thursday evenings, each with its own video. On September 4, 2009, Beck announced the second Record Club album, "Songs of Leonard Cohen". Contributors included MGMT, Devendra Banhart, Andrew Stockdale of Wolfmother and Binki Shapiro of Little Joy. In the third Record Club venture, Wilco, Feist, Jamie Lidell and James Gadson joined Beck to cover Skip Spence's "Oar". The first song, "Little Hands", was posted on Beck's website on November 12, 2009. The Record Club has since covered albums by INXS and Yanni.


title: Beck

text: On June 19, 2009, Beck announced Planned Obsolescence, a weekly DJ set put together by Beck or guest DJs. Soon after, on July 7, Beck announced that his website would be featuring "extended informal conversations with musicians, artists, filmmakers, and other various persons" in a section called Irrelevant Topics. Then, on July 12, he added a section called Videotheque, which he said would contain "promotional videos from each album, as well as live clips, TV show appearances and other rarities". Also in 2009, Beck collaborated with Charlotte Gainsbourg on her album "IRM", which was released in January 2010. Beck wrote the music, co-wrote the lyrics, and produced and mixed the album. The lead single, "Heaven Can Wait", is a duet by Beck and Gainsbourg.


title: Beck

text: In late February 2010, it was announced that electronic artist Tobacco of Black Moth Super Rainbow had collaborated with Beck on two songs, "Fresh Hex" and "Grape Aerosmith", on his upcoming album "Maniac Meat". Tobacco revealed that in making the album, Beck sent the vocal parts to him, and that they had never actually met. In March 2010, Beck revealed that he had produced songs for the new Jamie Lidell album, "Compass". In the summer of 2010, Beck contributed songs to both "" soundtrack, with "Let's Get Lost" (a duet with Bat for Lashes), and "True Blood (HBO Original Series Soundtrack, Vol. 2)", with "Bad Blood". He also contributed songs to the soundtrack of Edgar Wright's film "Scott Pilgrim vs. the World", which was released in August 2010.


title: Beck

text: In 2011, he collaborated with Seu Jorge on a track titled "Tropicália (Mario C. 2011 Remix)" for the Red Hot Organization's most recent charitable album "Red Hot+Rio 2", a follow-up to the 1996 album "Red Hot + Rio". Proceeds from the sales will be donated to raise awareness and money to fight AIDS/HIV and related health and social issues. He also contributed on the song "Attracted to Us" on "Turtleneck & Chain", the second album from The Lonely Island. Also in 2011, Beck produced a solo album by Thurston Moore of Sonic Youth called "Demolished Thoughts". An album he produced for Stephen Malkmus and the Jicks, "Mirror Traffic", was released in August 2011.


title: Beck

text: In October 2011, it was widely reported that Beck and producer Hector Castillo were collaborating with American composer Philip Glass to produce a remix album of the composer's works in honor of his 75th birthday. The album, "Rework Philip Glass Remixed", was released on October 23, 2012, to critical acclaim, and featured Beck as both a curator and a performer. In particular, Pitchfork described Beck's 22-minute contribution to the album, "NYC: 73–78", as "a fantasia ... the most startling and original piece of music with Beck's name on it in a while, and the first new work to bear his own spirit in even longer." Reflecting on Beck's contribution to the album, Glass remarked that he was "impressed by the novelty and freshness of a lot of the ideas". Beyond his work as a performer, Beck acted as the album's curator, bringing together a diverse collection of artists—including Amon Tobin, Tyondai Braxton, Nosaj Thing, and Memory Tapes—whose work had also been influenced by Glass. In December 2012, an interactive iPhone app titled "Rework_" was released to complement the album.


title: Beck

text: Beck has contributed three new songs—"Cities", "Touch the People" and "Spiral Staircase"—to the video game "Sound Shapes" for PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4, and PlayStation Vita. Beck collaborated on two songs for Childish Gambino's "Royalty" mixtape in 2012. In 2014, Beck collaborated with Sia for the song "Moonquake Lake", which is featured in the soundtrack for the 2014 "Annie" film.


title: Beck

text: In 2015, Beck collaborated with former Fun. frontman Nate Ruess on the single "What This World Is Coming To", which was one of the Grammy-winning artist's many works featured on his debut solo album "Grand Romantic" released in June 2015. He also collaborated with electronic dance music duo The Chemical Brothers on their most recent album "Born in the Echoes", providing lead vocals and also credited in writing for the track "Wide Open", released in July. In 2016, Beck collaborated with French electronic music band M83, providing vocals for the song "Time Wind" from their album "Junk". He was also featured on "Tiny Cities" by Flume. He also collaborated with Lady Gaga on the song "Dancin' in Circles", from her 2016 album "Joanne".


title: Beck

text: In 2017, Beck appeared in the multiple award-winning film "The American Epic Sessions", directed by Bernard MacMahon. He recorded "14 Rivers, 14 Floods" backed by a full gospel choir, live onto the first electrical sound recording system from the 1920s.


title: Beck

text: In 2019, Beck worked with Jenny Lewis on the song "Do Si Do" from her album "On the Line". He also collaborated with Cage the Elephant on the song "Night Running" from their album "Social Cues".


title: Beck

text: In 2020, Beck collaborated with virtual band Gorillaz to create the song "The Valley of the Pagans" which appears on "".


title: Beck

text: In 2021, Beck collaborated with Paul McCartney to make his hit single "Find My Way" on the album "McCartney III Imagined". As for festival stages the artist was inter alia part of the Newport Folk Festival in July.


title: Beck

text: Beck's musical style has been considered alternative and indie. He has played many of the instruments in his music himself. Beck has also done some remixes for fellow artists, notably David Bowie and Björk. He has been known to synthesize several musical elements together in his music, including folk, psychedelia, electronic, country, Latin music, hip hop, funk, soul, blues, noise music, jazz, and many types of rock. Because of this unconventional approach, Beck has been described as a postmodern musician. He has also taken music from Los Angeles as a reference point in his songs.


title: Beck

text: Pitchfork Media applauded "Midnite Vultures", saying, "Beck wonderfully blends Prince, Talking Heads, "Paul's Boutique", 'Shake Your Bon-Bon', and Mathlete on "Midnite Vultures", his most consistent and playful album yet." The review commented that his mix of "goofy piety and ambiguous intent" helped the album. A Beck song called "Harry Partch", a tribute to the composer of the same name and his "corporeal" music, employs Partch's 43-tone scale.


title: Beck

text: During 1998, Beck's art collaborations with his grandfather Al Hansen were featured in an exhibition titled "Beck & Al Hansen: Playing With Matches", which showcased solo and collaborative collage, assemblage, drawing and poetry works. The show toured from the Santa Monica Museum of Art to galleries in New York City and Winnipeg, Manitoba, in Canada. Beck chose Winnipeg due to a family connection, as his grandfather gave their famility stability through his work as a street car conductor in Winnipeg. A catalog of the show was published by Plug in Editions/Smart Art Press.


title: Beck

text: Beck's nine-year relationship with designer Leigh Limon and their subsequent breakup is said to have inspired his 2002 album, "Sea Change". He wrote most of the songs for the album in one week after the breakup. In April 2004, shortly before the birth of their son Cosimo Henri, Beck married actress Marissa Ribisi, the twin sister of actor Giovanni Ribisi. Their daughter, Tuesday, was born in 2007. Beck filed for divorce from Ribisi on February 15, 2019. Their divorce was finalized on September 3, 2021.


title: Beck

text: Beck has described himself as both Jewish and a Scientologist, but no longer identifies as the latter. Through his parents, he has been involved in Scientology for most of his life; his ex-wife, Marissa, is also a second-generation Scientologist. He publicly acknowledged his affiliation for the first time in a "New York Times Magazine" interview on March 6, 2005. Further confirmation came in an interview with the "Sunday Tribune" in June 2005, where he stated, "Yeah, I'm a Scientologist. My father has been a Scientologist for about 35 years, so I grew up in and around it." Despite this, Beck disavowed previous reports of his being a Scientologist in a November 2019 interview with the "Sydney Morning Herald" and said, "I think there's a misconception that I'm a Scientologist. I'm not a Scientologist. I don't have any connection or affiliation with it." He added that "I was raised celebrating Jewish holidays, and I consider myself Jewish."


title: Beck

text: As mentioned above, Beck's mother is former Andy Warhol The Factory collaborator, artist/writer/performer Bibbe Hansen. His siblings are fiber artist Channing Hansen (born in 1972 in Los Angeles, California) and poet Rain Whittaker.


title: Beck

text: Beck sustained a spinal injury while filming the music video for 2005's "E-Pro". The incident was severe enough to curtail his touring schedule for a few years, but he has since recovered.


title: Beck

text: The 1986 punk rock musical film "", starring Tomata du Plenty of The Screamers, features a young Beck in a small nonspeaking role. Beck also appears in "Southlander" (2001), an American independent film by Steve Hanft and Ross Harris.


title: Beck

text: Beck has performed on "Saturday Night Live" seven times. During his 2006 performance in the Hugh Laurie episode, Beck was accompanied by the puppets that had been used onstage during his world tour. He has made two cameo appearances as himself on "Saturday Night Live": one in a sketch about medicinal marijuana, and one in a VH1 "Behind the Music" parody that featured "Fat Albert & the Junkyard Gang".


title: Beck

text: Beck performed a guest voice as himself on Matt Groening's animated show "Futurama", in the episode "Bendin' in the Wind". He performed in episode 10 of the fourth season of "The Larry Sanders Show", in which the producer character Artie (Rip Torn) referred to him as a "hillbilly from outer space". He also made a very brief voice appearance in the 1998 cartoon feature film "The Rugrats Movie", and guest-starred as himself in a 1997 episode of "Space Ghost Coast to Coast" titled "Edelweiss".


title: Beck

text: On January 22, 2010, Beck appeared on the last episode of "The Tonight Show with Conan O'Brien" as a backup guitarist for a Will Ferrell-led rendition of Lynyrd Skynyrd's "Free Bird" alongside ZZ Top guitarist Billy Gibbons, Ben Harper, and O'Brien himself on guitar. On March 1, 2014, Beck was the musical guest on a "Saturday Night Live" episode hosted by Jim Parsons. Beck also appeared, as himself, in the 2017 film "The Circle", giving a musical performance of the song "Dreams".


title: Lucknow

text: Lucknow (, ) is the capital and the largest city of the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh and it is also the second largest urban agglomeration in Uttar Pradesh. Lucknow is the administrative headquarters of the eponymous district and division. Having a population of 2.8 million as per 2011 census, it is the eleventh most populous city and the twelfth-most populous urban agglomeration of India. Lucknow has always been a multicultural city that flourished as a North Indian cultural and artistic hub, and the seat of power of Nawabs in the 18th and 19th centuries. It continues to be an important centre of governance, administration, education, commerce, aerospace, finance, pharmaceuticals, technology, design, culture, tourism, music and poetry.


title: Lucknow

text: The city stands at an elevation of approximately above sea level. Lucknow city had an area of till December 2019, when 88 villages were added to the municipal limits and the area increased to . Bounded on the east by Barabanki, on the west by Unnao, on the south by Raebareli and in the north by Sitapur and Hardoi, Lucknow sits on the northwestern shore of the Gomti River. , there were 110 wards in the city. Morphologically, three clear demarcations exist: The Central business district, which is a fully built up area, comprises Hazratganj, Aminabad and Chowk. A middle zone surrounds the inner zone with cement houses while the outer zone consists of slums.


title: Lucknow

text: Historically, Lucknow was the capital of the Awadh region, controlled by the Delhi Sultanate and later the Mughal Empire. It was transferred to the Nawabs of Awadh. In 1856, the British East India Company abolished local rule and took complete control of the city along with the rest of Awadh and, in 1857, transferred it to the British Raj. Along with the rest of India, Lucknow became independent from Britain on 15 August 1947. It has been listed as the 17th-fastest growing city in India and 74th in the world.


title: Lucknow

text: Lucknow, along with Agra and Varanasi, is in the Uttar Pradesh Heritage Arc, a chain of survey triangulations created by the Government of Uttar Pradesh to boost tourism in the state.


title: Lucknow

text: "Lucknow" is the anglicised spelling of the local pronunciation "Lakhnau". According to one legend, the city is named after Lakshmana, a hero of the Hindu epic "Ramayana". The legend states that Lakshmana had a palace or an estate in the area, which was called "Lakshmanapuri" (Sanskrit: लक्ष्मणपुरी, lit. "Lakshmana's city"). The settlement came to be known as Lakhanpur (or Lachhmanpur) by the 11th century, and later, Lucknow.


title: Lucknow

text: A similar theory states that the city was known as "Lakshmanavati" (,fortunate) after Lakshmana. The name changed to "Lakhanavati", then Lakhnauti and finally Lakhnau. Yet another theory states that the city's name is connected with Lakshmi, the Hindu goddess of wealth. Over time, the name changed to Laksmanauti, Laksmnaut, Lakhsnaut, Lakhsnau and, finally, Lakhnau.


title: Lucknow

text: From 1350 onwards, Lucknow and parts of the Awadh region were ruled by the Delhi Sultanate, Sharqi Sultanate, Mughal Empire, Nawabs of Awadh, the British East India Company and the British Raj.


title: Lucknow

text: For about eighty-four years (from 1394 to 1478), Awadh was part of the Sharqi Sultanate of Jaunpur. Emperor Humayun made it a part of the Mughal Empire around 1555. Emperor Jahangir (1569–1627) granted an estate in Awadh to a favoured nobleman, Sheikh Abdul Rahim, who later built Machchi Bhawan on this estate. It later became the seat of power from where his descendants, the "Sheikhzadas", controlled the region.


title: Lucknow

text: The Nawabs of Lucknow, in reality, the Nawabs of Awadh, acquired the name after the reign of the third Nawab when Lucknow became their capital. The city became North India's cultural capital, and its nawabs, best remembered for their refined and extravagant lifestyles, were patrons of the arts. Under their dominion, music and dance flourished, and construction of numerous monuments took place. Of the monuments standing today, the Bara Imambara, the Chota Imambara, and the Rumi Darwaza are notable examples. One of the Nawab's enduring legacies is the region's syncretic Hindu–Muslim culture that has come to be known as the "Ganga-Jamuni Tehzeeb".


title: Lucknow

text: Until 1719, the "subah" of Awadh was a province of the Mughal Empire administered by a governor appointed by the emperor. Persian adventurer Saadat Khan, also known as Burhan-ul-Mulk, was appointed "Nizam" of Awadh in 1722 and established his court in Faizabad, near Lucknow.


title: Lucknow

text: Many independent kingdoms, such as Awadh, were established as the Mughal Empire disintegrated. The third Nawab, Shuja-ud-Daula (r. 1753–1775), fell out with the British after aiding the fugitive Nawab of Bengal, Mir Qasim. Roundly defeated at the Battle of Buxar by the East India Company, he was forced to pay heavy penalties and surrender parts of his territory. Awadh's capital, Lucknow rose to prominence when Asaf-ud-Daula, the fourth Nawab, shifted his court to the city from Faizabad in 1775. The British East India Company appointed a resident (ambassador) in 1773 and by early 19th century gained control of more territory and authority in the state. They were, however, disinclined to capture Awadh outright and come face to face with the Maratha Empire and the remnants of the Mughal Empire. In 1798, the fifth Nawab Wazir Ali Khan alienated both his people and the British and was forced to abdicate. The British then helped Saadat Ali Khan take the throne. He became a puppet king, and in a treaty of 1801, yielded large part of Awadh to the East India Company while also agreeing to disband his own troops in favour of a hugely expensive, British-controlled army. This treaty effectively made the state of Awadh a vassal of the East India Company, although it continued to be part of the Mughal Empire in name until 1819. The treaty of 1801 proved a beneficial arrangement for the East India Company as they gained access to Awadh's vast treasuries, repeatedly digging into them for loans at reduced rates. In addition, the revenues from running Awadh's armed forces brought them useful returns while the territory acted as a buffer state. The Nawabs were ceremonial kings, busy with pomp and show. By the mid-nineteenth century, however, the British had grown impatient with the arrangement and demanded direct control over Awadh.


title: Lucknow

text: In 1856 the East India Company first moved its troops to the border, then annexed the state for alleged maladministration. Awadh was placed under a chief commissioner – Sir Henry Lawrence. Wajid Ali Shah, the then Nawab, was imprisoned, then exiled by the East India Company to Calcutta. In the subsequent Indian Rebellion of 1857, his 14-year-old son Birjis Qadra, whose mother was Begum Hazrat Mahal, was crowned ruler. Following the rebellion's defeat, Begum Hazrat Mahal and other rebel leaders sought asylum in Nepal.


title: Lucknow

text: Lucknow was one of the major centres of the Indian Rebellion of 1857 and actively participated in India's independence movement, emerging as a strategically important North Indian city. During the Rebellion (also known as the First War of Indian Independence and the Indian Mutiny), the majority of the East India Company's troops were recruited from both the people and nobility of Awadh. The rebels seized control of the state, and it took the British 18 months to reconquer the region. During that period, the garrison based at the Residency in Lucknow was besieged by rebel forces during the Siege of Lucknow. The siege was relieved first by forces under the command of Sir Henry Havelock and Sir James Outram, followed by a stronger force under Sir Colin Campbell. Today, the ruins of the Residency and the "Shaheed Smarak" offer an insight into Lucknow's role in the events of 1857.


title: Lucknow

text: With the rebellion over, Oudh returned to British governance under a chief commissioner. In 1877 the offices of lieutenant-governor of the North-Western Provinces and chief commissioner of Oudh were combined; then in 1902, the title of chief commissioner was dropped with the formation of the United Provinces of Agra and Oudh, although Oudh still retained some marks of its former independence.


title: Lucknow

text: The Khilafat Movement had an active base of support in Lucknow, creating united opposition to British rule. In 1901, after remaining the capital of Oudh since 1775, Lucknow, with a population of 264,049, was merged into the newly formed United Provinces of Agra and Oudh. In 1920 the provincial seat of government moved from Allahabad to Lucknow. Upon Indian independence in 1947, the United Provinces were reorganised into the state of Uttar Pradesh, and Lucknow remained its capital.


title: Lucknow

text: Lucknow witnessed some of the pivotal moments in the history of India. One is the first meeting of the stalwarts Mahatma Gandhi, Jawaharlal Nehru and Mohd Ali Jinnah during the Indian National Congress session of 1916 (the Lucknow pact was signed and moderates and extremists came together through the efforts of Annie Besant during this session only).


title: Lucknow

text: The Congress President for that session, Ambica Charan Majumdar in his address said that "If the Congress was buried at Surat, it is reborn in Lucknow in the garden of Wajid Ali Shah".