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Featured Events
2012Adele posts her new theme to Skyfall, the 23rd film in the James Bond series. The theme song, written by Adele and her songwriting partner Paul Epworth, features a 77-piece backing orchestra. In an informal Billboardpoll, 69% of responses vote it the best theme to a Bond film ever.
1979ABBA visits the White House while on tour for the first and only time in America. They meet President Carter's daughter Amy, who is a big fan.
1962Parlophone releases the first Beatles single, "Love Me Do," in the UK. Andy White plays drums and Ringo Starr plays tambourine.
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In Music History
2014Leonard Delaney (drummer for The Tornadoes) dies at age 71 after a lengthy battle with Alzheimer's disease.
2011The Martin Scorsese documentary George Harrison: Living in the Material Worldpremieres on HBO. Ringo Starr says in the film: "He had the bag of love-beads personality and the bag of anger."
2011Steve Jobs, Apple founder and music industry visionary, passes away at age 56 after a battle with pancreatic cancer.
2011Scottish Folk-Guitar master Bert Jansch dies at age 67. He was a big influence on Led Zeppelin and Neil Young.
2008After 17 years living as a couple, Ritchie Blackmore and Candice Night finally tie the knot. Blackmore is formerly of the bands Deep Purple and Rainbow. Night and Blackmore were brought together through a shared love of Renaissance music and together form the band Blackmore's Night, which enjoys nominal success as a British traditional folk / Renaissance music project.
2007A federal jury finds a Minnesota woman guilty of online music file sharing through the public service KaZaa, fining her $220,000.
2006Jeffrey Borer, owner of company that sold Michael Jackson his private Gulfstream jet, is sentenced to six months in prison for ordering employee Arvel Jett Reeves to install two videocameras in it in order to catch Jackson saying something for which he could be blackmailed.
2003Irish singer-songwriter Damien Ricecollects the third annual Shortlist Music Prize, climaxing a four-and-a-half hour concert, featuring Rice and seven of the nine nominees at the Wiltern Theatre in Los Angeles. Styled as a US equivalent to Britain's Mercury Prize, the Shortlist Prize honors cutting-edge performers whose latest albums have sold less than 500,000 copies at the time of their nomination.
2002Kelly Clarkson's "A Moment Like This" goes from #52 to #1 on the Hot 100, breaking the record for biggest leap to the top spot. The previous record was held by The Beatles, whose "Can't Buy Me Love" went from #27 to #1. Maroon 5 beat Clarkson's record in 2007 when "It Makes Me Wonder" rose to the summit from #64.
2001After months of wrangling over child support, rapper Eminem's divorce becomes official.
1999The Corrs perform live on MTV's Unplugged at Ardmore Studios in Wicklow, Ireland. The resulting CD and DVD have sold well over 2 million copies.
1999After breaking up in 1983, The Whoreform when Roger Daltrey announces that they will play a concert in Las Vegas.
1998Without comment, the Supreme Court refuses to throw out a suit charging that composer Sir Andrew Lloyd Webber copied from another songwriter for the "Phantom Song" from his Phantom of the Opera. The case stems from a 1990 suit filed by U.S. liturgical composer Ray Repp that claims Webber's song copies Repp's 1978 composition "Till You."
Bobby Darin Hits #1 With A Murder Ballad
1959
Bobby Darin's swinging version of "Mack the Knife," a song about a killer from The Threepenny Opera, hits #1 on the Hot 100 and stays there for an astonishing nine weeks. Darin, who is known for lighter fare like "Splish Splash," gains a more adult following, putting him on par with Frank Sinatra.
The song was written by the German composers Kurt Weill and Bertolt Brecht (as "Moritat") for the play, which opened in Berlin in 1928. In 1933, The Threepenny Opera came to Broadway, but flopped. A 1954 revival was more successful, and the cast album got the attention of many musicians in the area.
"Mack The Knife" was the standout track, but a bit gruesome, since it's about a dude named Macheath who enjoys stabbing people. In 1956, six different versions made the Hot 100, including a delicious guitar instrumental by Les Paul. The only one with vocals is by Louis Armstrong, who somehow softened the edges with his signature growl.
Darin lightened the song by making it swing, turning this Macheath character into one hip (albeit murderous) cat. He didn't think it was suitable as a single, but his boss - Ahmet Ertegun of Atlantic Records - did. Released as the follow-up to his hit "Dream Lover," it becomes the biggest hit of 1959, sending Darin to a new stratum of stardom.
"Mack The Knife" was the standout track, but a bit gruesome, since it's about a dude named Macheath who enjoys stabbing people. In 1956, six different versions made the Hot 100, including a delicious guitar instrumental by Les Paul. The only one with vocals is by Louis Armstrong, who somehow softened the edges with his signature growl.
Darin lightened the song by making it swing, turning this Macheath character into one hip (albeit murderous) cat. He didn't think it was suitable as a single, but his boss - Ahmet Ertegun of Atlantic Records - did. Released as the follow-up to his hit "Dream Lover," it becomes the biggest hit of 1959, sending Darin to a new stratum of stardom.
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