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Featured Events
2014After completing treatment for an eating disorder, Ke$ha drops the $ from her stage name and changes her Twitter handle from @Ke$haSuxx to @KeshaRose ("Rose" is her middle name).More
2001The National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) and the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) reveal their list of the top 365 "Songs Of The Century" (some of which are not songs, but albums). "Over The Rainbow" is #1, followed by "White Christmas" and "This Land Is Your Land."More
1987Licensed To Ill by Beastie Boys becomes the first rap album to top the US chart. It stays at #1 for seven weeks.
1985The song "We are the World" is released as a single, soon achieving massive chart success all around the world. The song, written by Lionel Richie and Michael Jackson, is recorded for charity to help battle famine in Africa. The supergroup USA for Africa brought together for the recording features a stunning list of big names in music - everyone from Bruce Springsteen and Bob Dylan to Ray Charles, Cyndi Lauper and Dionne Warwick.
1983Bananarama release their debut album, Deep Sea Skiving, featuring a hit cover of Steam's "Na Na Hey Hey Kiss Him Goodbye" and the Top 10 UK entry "Shy Boy."
1983The English new wave duo Tears For Fears release their debut album, The Hurting, featuring the melancholic "Mad World." The album is inspired by the work of American psychologist Arthur Janov, founder of primal therapy.More
1980The Loretta Lynn biopic Coal Miner's Daughter, directed by Michael Apted, debuts in theaters. Sissy Spacek, who does her own singing, wins an Oscar for her portrayal of the country singer. Beverly D'Angelo costars as Lynn's mentor Patsy Cline.More
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In Music History
2016Michael White, the British producer whose work includes the films Monty Python and the Holy Grail and The Rocky Horror Picture Show, dies of heart failure at age 80.
2015Drake places an astounding 14 songs in the Hot 100, thanks to the release of his mixtape If You're Reading This It's Too Late. The Beatles are the only other act to accomplish this, with 14 songs on the tally for a week in April 1964.
2013Guitarist Peter Banks, a founding member of Yes, dies at age 65.
2009Jimmy Boyd, known for introducing the 1953 Christmas tune "I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus," dies of cancer at age 70.
2001Ex-Trammps member Jerry Collins is convicted of attempted murder after being found guilty of bashing his wife's head into a sink and also pistol-whipping her. He is sentenced to a maximum of 35 years.
2001Ed Townshend, singer/songwriter of the 1957 hit "For Your Love," sues the R&B group K-Ci and JoJo, claiming they used his song in their recent hit "Just For Your Love."
2000Country singer Pee Wee King dies at age 86.
1999Marv Ingram of The Four Preps dies at age 60.
1998Archbishop Franc Rode organizes a special mass to forgive the blasphemers who wrote and recorded "Bitchcraft."
1988The drag queen Divine (Glenn Milstead) dies of a heart attack at age 42.More
1987The Beastie Boys appear on Soul Train, where they perform "Brass Monkey." They win over host Don Cornelius, who tells them, "You're very chilling, very hip, and we like your music."
1987The first Beatles albums are released on compact disc: Please Please Me, With The Beatles, A Hard Day's Night, Beatles For Sale, and Help!. This marks the first time the band's official UK albums have been available as standard Beatles albums in the US, many being presented for the first time in America in their original mono mixes.
1983New Order release "Blue Monday," which becomes the biggest-selling 12-inch single of all time. The track is reissued twice by the band: in 1988 and 1995. Despite massive success in Europe and on the specialist dance chart, only the 1988 Quincy Jones remix makes it to the mainstream Billboard Hot 100, peaking at #68.
1983The Songwriter's Hall of Fame inducts Neil Sedaka and Stevie Wonder into their ranks during their annual New York ceremony.
1979The Police get a badly needed break when they play the Armadillo World Headquarters in Austin, Texas, where the radio station KLBJ has been playing their single "Roxanne," the first station in America to do so. The song starts to catch on, and seven weeks later peaks at #32, giving the band their first hit.
Parody Protected In 2 Live Crew Case
1994The Supreme Court rules that parody constitutes fair use in deciding that 2 Live Crew's version of Roy Orbison's "(Oh) Pretty Woman" (where the woman is now big and hairy) is legal.
The 2 Live Crew version uses most of Orbison's music, but instead of telling the tale of a guy who spots a lovely lady and wins her affections, their pretty woman is revealed as hairy, bald and two-timing: Big hairy woman, all that hair ain't legit 'Cause you look like Cousin Itt. The case is a landmark, as it definitively protects parody even in cases of sampling. Thus, if you are making fun of a song, you can use it, provided: 1) You don't use any more of the original than necessary to make the point. 2) The parody doesn't harm the market for the original. Justice David Souter writes: "Parody's humor, or in any event its comment, necessarily springs from recognizable allusion to its object through distorted imitation. Its art lies in the tension between a known original and its parodic twin. When parody takes aim at a particular original work, the parody must be able to 'conjure up' at least enough of that original to make the object of its critical wit recognizable. What makes for this recognition is quotation of the original's most distinctive or memorable features, which the parodist can be sure the audience will know." Filing briefs in support of 2 Live Crew in the case are Mad Magazine, the Harvard Lampoon, and the political comedy musical group The Capitol Steps.
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