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Featured Events
1998The Titanic soundtrack goes to #1 in America, replacing Celine Dion's Let's Talk About Love. Both albums contain the hit song from the movie, "My Heart Will Go On."
1970Dr. Robert Moog unveils the "minimoog" synthesizer, one of the first portable synth keyboards, at a price of $2,000. The American Federation of Musicians at first opposes the instrument, fearing its "realistic" settings will put horn and string sections out of work. The minimoog becomes the first synth to go on tour with rock bands.
1962"The Twist" craze peaks, with a re-released version of Chubby Checker's song at #1 for the last time.
1957Elvis Presley's "Jailhouse Rock" enters the UK charts at #1, the first single to ever do so.
24
In Music History
2016Butch Trucks, co-founder and drummer of The Allman Brothers Band, dies at age 69 of a self-inflicted gunshot wound.
2015INXS guitarist Tim Farriss severs the ring finger on his left hand while operating a winch on his boat. Doctors reattach the digit after two surgeries.
2012Pete Townshend sells the publishing rights to the songs he has written to the Spirit Music Group, which plans to place more of his music in TV shows, movies and commercials. Townshend's catalog includes about 400 songs, most of which he wrote for The Who.
2009Kings Of Leon play a fundraiser for the University of Chicago's Comer Children's Hospital at the House of Blues in Chicago. Despite the $150 ticket price, the show sells out.
2007Randy Newman publishes the lyrics to his song "A Few Words in Defense of Our Country" in The New York Times as an editorial. In the song, he points out that George W. Bush isn't as bad as other world leaders from history, like King Leopold or Stalin.
2005Country-pop singer Lynn Anderson is arrested for stealing a Harry Potter DVD from a supermarket in Taos, New Mexico, and then, allegedly, punching the arresting officer in the stomach.
2002In San Antonio, Texas, Tex-Mex legend Freddy Fender receives a much-needed kidney transplant from his daughter, Marla Huerta Garcia.
2000Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young open the first tour of the full quartet in 25 years with a show at Palace of Auburn Hills in Detroit, Michigan.
1986Singer/actor Gordon MacRae, who starred in the film versions of the musicals Oklahoma! and Carousel, dies of cancer and pneumonia at age 64.
1982The Super Bowl is held in Pontiac, Michigan, so the halftime show is a salute to Motown. Diana Ross sings the national anthem.
1981Aerosmith's Steven Tyler gets in a nasty motorcycle accident with his 17-year-old babysitter riding on the back. He spends the remainder of the year recovering, which delays the band's next album, Rock In A Hard Place.
1980The Ants of Adam & The Ants leave to join Bow Wow Wow, whose manager, the punk godfather Malcolm McLaren, presents the offer. Adam Ant had paid McLaren £1000 for musical advice, for which he learned about African beats, but lost his band, which he quickly replaced.
1980Clever marketing: Pink Floyd advertise their upcoming world tour to promote their album The Wall with a special billboard on Los Angeles' Sunset Strip that is gradually covered up each day with a brick until an entire wall is built over it.
1976Diana Ross's "Theme From Mahogany (Do You Know Where You're Going To)" hits #1.
Aretha Franklin Gets The Muscle Shoals Sound And Her First Hit
1967
Aretha Franklin records her first Top 10 pop hit, "(I Never Loved A Man) The Way That I Love You," at FAME Studios in Muscle Shoals, Alabama.
Franklin, recently signed to Atlantic Records after only middling success in six years recording for Columbia, heads to Muscle Shoals at the behest of her producer, Jerry Wexler, a bigwig at the label. The sleepy Alabama town has a way of keeping artists on point and bringing out their best, and the musicians are top-tier. This session is far from sleepy though, and Aretha's husband/manager Ted White exchanges words with trumpet player Ken Laxton and ends up getting in an altercation with the studio owner.
After the session Aretha and her husband leave, and she never returns to Muscle Shoals. The sound she got during this fateful session is exactly what Wexler is looking for, and the key to making Aretha the superstar she is destined to be. Since Franklin won't go to Muscle Shoals, he instead brings the musicians to her, flying them up to New York City to finish the album. These guys become her backing band for her next three albums, each time flying to New York on Atlantic's dime to record with Franklin.
These recordings make Franklin one of the biggest stars of the '60s, and when word gets out that she's doing it with musicians from Muscle Shoals, many artists book time to work with them at FAME and later Muscle Shoals Sound Studios. When the artist arrive, they are often shocked to discover that Aretha's backing band is white.
After the session Aretha and her husband leave, and she never returns to Muscle Shoals. The sound she got during this fateful session is exactly what Wexler is looking for, and the key to making Aretha the superstar she is destined to be. Since Franklin won't go to Muscle Shoals, he instead brings the musicians to her, flying them up to New York City to finish the album. These guys become her backing band for her next three albums, each time flying to New York on Atlantic's dime to record with Franklin.
These recordings make Franklin one of the biggest stars of the '60s, and when word gets out that she's doing it with musicians from Muscle Shoals, many artists book time to work with them at FAME and later Muscle Shoals Sound Studios. When the artist arrive, they are often shocked to discover that Aretha's backing band is white.
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