17
Featured Events
2009The much-read blog Boing Boing posts the video of "Prisencolinensinainciusol," the 1972 "gibberish rock song written by Italian composer to sound like English." The song quickly gains an American following and is later used in episodes of Fargo and Trust.
1989The Simpsons debuts on Fox with the episode "Simpsons Roasting on an Open Fire." The show quickly attracts big-name guest stars, including many musicians. In Season 3, Michael Jackson, Sting and Aerosmith appear.
1984Run-DMC's self-titled debut album is certified Gold, making it the first rap album to do so.
1982The Who play the last show of their farewell tour at Toronto's Maple Leaf Gardens, which is filmed for an HBO special called Who's Last. They re-form to play Live Aid in 1985, then tour again in 1989.
1977Elvis Costello gets banned from Saturday Night Live when he abruptly halts his performance of "Less Than Zero" and plays the searing "Radio Radio" instead.More
1971David Bowie releases his fourth album, Hunky Dory, which opens with the anthemic "Changes."
17
In Music History
2010Don Van Vliet, aka Captain Beefheart, dies in a hospital in Arcata, California, at the age of 69, from complications associated with multiple sclerosis.
2010Blues singer Robin Rogers dies of liver cancer at age 55 while her new album, Back in the Fire, climbs the blues chart.
2006Denis Peyton (saxophonist, guitarist for The Dave Clark Five) dies of cancer at age 63.
2001Garth Brooks and Sandy Mahl divorce after 15 years of marriage. They share three daughters: Taylor, August, and Allie.
1999Jazz saxophonist Grover Washington Jr. suffers a fatal heart attack after performing on CBS's Saturday Early Show. He was 56.
1999Actor/country singer Rex Allen dies at age 78 when he's accidentally run over by his caregiver.
1997MP3.com goes online, allowing independent artists to make their music available for download. It goes public in 1999 but runs into legal problems when posting music by major-label acts. In 2001, it's sold to Vivendi, which sells it in 2003 to CNET, which is just interested in the domain name.
1986The Doobie Brothers reunite for a benefit concert in Palo Alto, California, which leads to a reunion tour and album.
1986Wayne Newton wins a $19.2 million suit against NBC News, which had erroneously linked the singer to organized crime.
1982Blues musician Big Joe Williams dies in Macon, Mississippi, at age 79. Known for hits of the '30s and '40s, such as "Baby, Please Don't Go" and "Crawlin' King Snake."
1972Craig "DJ Homicide" Bullock (of Sugar Ray) is born in Pasadena, California.
1970Andy Williams records "Theme From Love Story."
1970The Beach Boys play a Royal Command Performance for Princess Margaret at London's Royal Albert Hall.
1969Thanks to play on freeform FM radio stations, Chicago Transit Authority's self-titled debut album goes Gold, eight months after its release. For their next album, the band shortens their name to Chicago.
1969Tiny Tim marries Miss Vicki Budinger on The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson. The program receives the second largest ratings of any show up to that time.
Gilbert O'Sullivan Beats The Biz In Landmark Sampling Case
1991A judge rules in favor of the British singer-songwriter Gilbert O'Sullivan in his case against the rapper Biz Markie, who sampled Sullivan's song "Alone Again (Naturally)" without permission. The landmark case establishes that samples must be cleared before they are used.
Sampling has been common for quite some time, with some artists getting permission and others just using the samples and dealing with the fallout after the fact, which early on was the more common approach. An early example of this easier-to-ask-forgiveness-than-permission tactic is "Rapper's Delight" by The Sugarhill Gang, which sampled "Good Times" by Chic in 1979. In 1982, Afrika Bambaataa & The Soulsonic Force interpolated Kraftwerk's "Trans-Europe Express" on their track "Planet Rock," also without clearance. In both cases, settlements were reached. By 1991, most major hip-hop acts cleared their samples, which could usually be done at a relatively low cost, allowing for albums like Paul's Boutique by Beastie Boys, which used about 100 samples. And when they didn't, the matter was typically settled out of court. The Biz Markie case is different because: 1) His record company asked permission, was denied, and used it anyway. 2) O'Sullivan didn't just want money, he wanted Markie's song pulled from the market. Markie's song, released on his 1991 album I Need a Haircut, is called "Alone Again," and finds him playing the role of a sad sack who can't find a friend. It samples about 20 seconds of O'Sullivan's song and interpolates the chorus as Biz laments, "I'm alone again, naturally." Markie did something similar on his 1989 hit "Just A Friend," where he reworked a Freddie Scott R&B song from 1968 called "(You) Got What I Need," but he got a lot more resistance from O'Sullivan. When his record company tried to clear the sample, O'Sullivan rejected it because he felt Markie's comic rendering besmirched the original, which many listeners have used to sink into the throes of depression as a means of musical therapy. Markie is on Cold Chillin' Records, a subsidiary of Warner Bros. Using the sample without permission was a brazen but calculated risk: O'Sullivan was based in England and not likely to hear the song. And to sue Markie, he'd have to appear in New York court to do it. That's exactly what he did. The case is decided quickly and decisively - O'Sullivan says Biz Markie didn't even show up. The judge delivers a harsh repudiation of Warner Bros., opening his ruling by quoting the book of Exodus: "Thou shalt not steal." On December 30, the two sides agree to a settlement that is not disclosed, but reported as "substantial." In addition to the payout, Warner Bros. recalls the album, which has been out since August 23. The song is removed from additional pressings of the album. The case sends record company lawyers scrambling to secure the rights to all those uncleared samples, and to make sure every sample is cleared henceforth. Even tiny samples that nobody bothered clearing before the case are now an issue. Case in point: "Tennessee" by Arrested Development, which uses one word ("Tennessee") from the Prince song "Alphabet Street." Prince could name his price, which turned out to be $100,000. Here's more on the history of plagiarism in songs.
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