27
Featured Events
2015Twitter discontinues Vine, the short-form video hosting service that launched the music careers of Shawn Mendes and "Lost Boy" singer Ruth B.More
2014Taylor Swift issues 1989, her biggest-selling album. The first two singles are monster hits: "Shake It Off" and "Blank Space."More
2013Lou Reed (frontman for The Velvet Underground) dies of liver disease in Southampton, New York, at age 71.
2009Country singer Brantley Gilbert releases his debut album, Modern Day Prodigal Son. It includes the song "My Kinda Party," which becomes a hit for Jason Aldean the following year.
1995Copycat debuts in US movie theaters. Harry Connick, Jr. plays a murderer who terrorizes Sigourney Weaver and mentors a budding serial killer in the psychological thriller. It's quite a departure for the smooth singer of love songs.
1993Glenn Frey's TV series South of Sunset makes its debut on CBS. Frey plays Cody McMahon, a security chief/bodyguard who starts a detective agency in Hollywood.More
1980Steve Took, original percussionist of T. Rex, dies in New Kensington, London, at age 31. Although he had taken drugs, his official cause of death was asphyxiation after inhaling a cocktail cherry.
27
In Music History
2013Fleetwood Mac cancels the remaining dates of their world tour after co-founder John McVie is diagnosed with cancer.
2012Barbra Streisand's album Release Me hits #7 in the US, making her the first artist to have multiple albums in the Top 10 during every decade from the 1960s to the 2010s (her 2011 album What Matters Most made #4). Streisand is the female artist with the most Top 10 charting albums in history.
2011Beavis and Butt-Head returns to MTV.
2007Led by the "Werewolves Of London"/"Sweet Home Alabama" mashup "All Summer Long," Kid Rock's Rock N Roll Jesus hits #1 in America, giving him his first chart-topping album.
2006Kim Gordon of Sonic Youth premieres her film Perfect Partner at Montclair State University in New Jersey.
2005New York rappers Jay-Z and Nas end their longtime feud and promote peace on stage during New York radio station Power 105.1's Power House concert at New Jersey's Continental Airlines Arena.
2005The family band Cherryholmes gets the entertainer of the year award at the 16th Annual International Bluegrass Music Association Awards, becoming the first act nominated for emerging artist and entertainer in the same year.
2002Tom Dowd, who as an engineer and producer worked on classic albums for Eric Clapton, The Allman Brothers Band, Aretha Franklin, Lynyrd Skynyrd and Ray Charles, dies of emphysema at age 77.
1999Frank De Vol - known for his '40s arrangements, namely "Nature Boy," and compositions of TV themes for The Brady Bunch and My Three Sons - dies of congestive heart failure in Lafayette, California, at age 88.
1999KoRn debuts their new single on the season premiere of South Park. Korn members Jonathan Davis, James "Munky" Shaffer, Brian "Head" Welch, Reginald "Fieldy" Arvizu, and David Silveria lend their likenesses and voices - as well as the song "Falling Away From Me" - to the episode.
1999Master P's hoop dream comes to an end. The high-profile rapper, whose real name is Percy Miller, is waived by the NBA's Toronto Raptors, failing to make the pro league for the second straight season. The year before, the Charlotte Hornets waived Miller just before the regular season began.
1992Bo Diddley sues the estate of his former manager, the now-deceased Martin Otelsberg, for $75,000 in misappropriated funds.
1991Country music singer Lorrie Morgan marries Brad Thompson, a tour bus driver for singer Clint Black. The two met when the singer toured with Black and Merle Haggard in 1990. Black, who married just one week earlier, serves as best man. Morgan and Thompson divorce in 1993.
1991Country music singer Jimmy Dean, 62, marries his second wife, fellow country singer Donna Meade, 38. The two would stay married until Dean's death in 2010.
Springsteen Makes Covers Of Time And Newsweek
1975
Bruce Springsteen appears on the covers of both Time and Newsweek amid acclaim for his third album, Born To Run.
Springsteen's first two albums, both released in 1973, earned him some ink in publications like Creem, Melody Maker and Rolling Stone, but his first big cover story isn't a music magazine, it's Time and Newsweek, the two biggest news magazines in America. Orchestrated by his producer-manager Mike Appel, it's quite a publicity blast for Springsteen, who has spent the last several years pounding away in clubs, mostly in and around his native New Jersey.
Both articles tell his compelling underdog story, describing him as a workmanlike rocker with the pen of a poet. But he's running out of time: With his first two albums underperforming, Born To Run, released two months earlier, may be his last chance.
Springsteen comes off grounded and unflappable, a sharp contrast to the many acts record companies have been foisting on the public that haven't lived up to the hype (Barnaby Bye, Judi Pulver). It helps that Springsteen is championed by John Hammond, the Columbia Records executive who also signed Bob Dylan and Aretha Franklin.
The articles tell the stories that will form the bedrock of Springsteen's legend: how he bought his first guitar for $18 and would hitchhike into Greenwich Village, where he encountered the peculiar swath of humanity that became the characters in his songs. And unlike the stereotypical rocker, he stays away from drugs, drinks in moderation, and is especially courteous around women. All good talking points.
All this press gives Springsteen a huge boost, but he's not exactly "Rock's New Sensation," as Time declares in their headline. Born To Run gets him on solid ground, but his biggest hit, the title track, tops out at #23. His momentum stalls in 1976 when he gets in a legal battle with Appel that keeps him from performing for over a year, a time he devotes to songwriting and performing. The music magazines, at first leary of his mainstream success, cheer him on when he returns in 1978 with Darkness on the Edge of Town, which Dave Marsh hails as a record that "changes fundamentally the way we hear rock & roll." His glowing review appears in Rolling Stone, which gives him the cover for the first time.
Over the next few years, Springsteen builds a fervent, almost devotional following and becomes known for his songwriting - his song "Fire" is a #2 hit for the Pointer Sisters in 1979. But it's not until 1984 with his album Born in the U.S.A. that he becomes an arena act and Platinum seller (Born To Run isn't certified Platinum until 1986). This wave of acclaim is far more overarching and trenchant than the Time/Newsweek blast. Finding an audience is no longer a problem, but getting his point across is. The song "Born In The U.S.A." is about Vietnam veteran who is neglected when he returns home, but this song is heard by many as a flag-waving, patriotic anthem. Ronald Reagan even mentions Springsteen in a campaign speech - not what he had in mind.
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