29
Featured Events
2011Sylvia Robinson, a singer and rap impresario who brought us "Rapper's Delight," dies at age 75.
1991MTV plays the "Smells Like Teen Spirit" video for the first time, giving most Americans their first look at Nirvana. A little over a month later, the song is #1 on the Hot 100.
1990Nelson (Rick Nelson's twin sons, Gunnar and Matthew) top the Billboard Hot 100 with "(Can't Live Without Your) Love and Affection," becoming the second generation of Nelsons to top the charts. Their grandfather, Ozzie Nelson, may have been the most popular of the bunch as a band leader in the '30s and '40s.
1984The English girl group Bananarama has their US breakthrough when "Cruel Summer" peaks at #9 on the pop chart, thanks to the song's appearance in the summer smash The Karate Kid.
1969Merle Haggard releases "Okie From Muskogee," a song that protests Vietnam war protesters. The single goes on to reach #1 on the Country chart and #43 on the Billboard Hot 100.
1968The Supremes eschew their elegant dresses and go casual to perform "Love Child" on The Ed Sullivan Show. Diana Ross wears a sweatshirt, which is in line with the character in the song.More
1935Jerry Lee Lewis is born in Ferriday, Louisiana.
29
In Music History
2017A statue of Jimmy Bain by Colin Cairns Ford is unveiled in the bass player's hometown of Dunbar, Scotland.
2013Keith "Sabu" Crier (bass player for GQ) dies at age 58. Known for the 1979 hit "Disco Nights (Rock-Freak)."
2013Ten million tune in to the finale of the TV series Breaking Bad, which ends with "Baby Blue," a 1971 song by Badfinger. The song represents lead character Walter White's love of his creation: blue methamphetamine.
2012Patrick Stump of Fall Out Boy marries longtime girlfriend Elisa Yao.
2009After throwing wads of cash ("making it rain") on Pitbull at his gig in Aspen, Colorado, a fan receives a haymaker punch to the jaw from the singer.More
2009After the band plays a gig at Club Academy in Manchester, England, tens of thousands of pounds worth of Noah and the Whale's equipment is stolen from a locked trailer in a car park near the venue. In December, police recover most of the gear, including items of great sentimental value to the band, nearly 100 miles away in a barn where the perpetrators had been storing it.
2009Lynyrd Skynyrd releases Gods & Guns, their 13th album.
2003"Stacy's Mom" by Fountains of Wayne is released. The music video stars model/actress Rachel Hunter, who plays Stacy's mom - the obsession of her teenage daughter's friend.
2003Country singer Wesley Tuttle dies of heart failure at age 85. Known for the 1945 hits "Detour" and "With Tears in My Eyes." He also yodeled for Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs' "Silly Song."
2003DMX guest stars on an episode of the UPN sitcom Eve. Starring fellow rapper Eve, the series is set in Miami, where DMX's character plays "the best tattoo artist in Miami."
2002Country/pop songwriter Mickey Newbury dies in Springfield, Oregon, after a battle with emphysema at age 62.
2001Lorrie Morgan marries her fifth husband, fellow country singer Sammy Kershaw. They divorce in 2007.
2001With her song "I'm Real" at #1 in America, Jennifer Lopez marries the dancer Cris Judd. The couple get divorced in June 2002.
1997The Verve, which broke up just two years earlier, release their breakthrough album Urban Hymns. The album started as a solo project for frontman Richard Ashcroft, but ended up pulling the band back together.
1997Blues Traveler bassist Bobby Sheehan is arrested for cocaine possession in Winnipeg. He is later released on $5,000 bond.
Disco-Flavored "Star Wars Theme/Cantina Band" Hits #1
1977#1 on the Hot 100 is "Star Wars Theme/Cantina Band" by Meco. It's a 15-minute song made up of Star Wars music set to a disco beat. There's even an R2-D2 bleeping solo.
Meco Monardo, a session trombonist and music producer, is one of the first in line to see Star Wars on opening day in 1977 and is blown away – not just by the intergalactic tale of good vs. evil or the visionary special effects that bring it to life, but by the triumphant main title theme performed by John Williams and the London Symphony Orchestra. Through the course of ten more viewings, he brainstorms a disco treatment that will combine the score's various character themes with other quirky elements from the film, like wookiee noises and R2-D2's chirpy bleeps. Star Wars is an instant success both critically and commercially, making stars out of fresh faces like Mark Hamill, Harrison Ford, and Carrie Fisher and sending Williams' title theme to #10 on the Billboard Hot 100 Chart. So when Meco brings the idea for a disco-infused version of the score to his pal at Casablanca Records, it is immediately green-lit. With the help of Harold Wheeler and Tony Bongiovi, whom he worked with on Gloria Gaynor's 1974 cover of "Never Can Say Goodbye," he arranges and records the Star Wars and Other Galactic Funk album in just three weeks. The "Star Wars Theme/Cantina Band" single ("Cantina Band" referring to the house band's zippy number at the Mos Eisley Cantina) is a #1 hit. The album is nominated for a Grammy Award for Best Pop Instrumental Performance, but loses to Williams for the Star Wars Soundtrack.
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