29
Featured Events
2007Apple's new device, the iPhone, is released, integrating music into a phone for the first time.More
1999Slipknot release their self-titled debut album. Metal Hammer magazine calls it the "best debut of the last 25 years."More
1987Meeting at a London pub, a group of record label executives decide to use the term "World Music" to promote their international artists. This new designation becomes a section in many record stores and makes it much easier to classify artists that don't fit traditional genres.
1974Neil Peart replaces John Rutsey as the drummer for Rush. Rutsey played on the band's first album, but Peart plays on the next 18, joining Geddy Lee and Alex Lifeson in one of the most venerable and productive partnerships in rock history.
1969Crosby, Stills & Nash release their self-titled debut album, lighting a path for '70s bands like America and the Eagles with rich harmonies and mysterious lyrics.More
1963Del Shannon's cover of The Beatles' "From Me to You" enters the Hot 100 at #96, becoming the first Lennon-McCartney composition to chart in America. Shannon's version peaks at #77; in the UK the Beatles original hits #1 in May.
1928The Winterland Ballroom opens in San Francisco, California. It's an ice-skating rink that can be converted into a general entertainment venue for opera, boxing, and other events, costing a whopping (for 1928) $1 million to build. It will go on to become a concert location for many famous acts, including The Sex Pistols, Neil Young, Bob Dylan, Peter Frampton, Deep Purple, Led Zeppelin, Jethro Tull, and Pink Floyd.
29
In Music History
2020Benny Mardones of "Into The Night" fame dies at 73 after a long battle with Parkinson's disease.
2007George McCorkle, guitarist for The Marshall Tucker Band and composer of their hit "Fire On The Mountain," dies at age 59 shortly after being diagnosed with cancer.
2004Rush release their 18th studio album, Feedback, comprised of eight cover songs selected from tunes that influenced each band member in their younger years.
2004Rick James performs "Fire And Desire" with Teena Marie at the BET Awards. It's his last performance, as James dies five weeks later at 56.
2002Rosemary Clooney dies of lung cancer at age 74.
2001Dream A Little Dream: The Almost-True Story of the Mamas & the Papas, a stage musical penned by former Papas member Denny Doherty, premieres in Toronto.
2000The casket holding Lynyrd Skynyrd lead singer Ronnie Van Zandt is stolen from its mausoleum in Jacksonville, Florida, but left after vandals are unable to open it. The ashes of Steve Gaines, the band's guitarist who died in the same plane crash that killed Van Zandt, are spilled from his urn, which is also stolen.
1999Former teen heartthrob Leif Garrett is arrested in Los Angeles for possession of cocaine.
1998German pianist Horst Jankowski dies of lung cancer at age 62.
1998George Harrison announces that he is undergoing chemotherapy for throat cancer, with assurances that, "I'm not going to die on you folks just yet." He succumbs to the disease three years later.
1995Ringo Starr's first-ever TV commercial, for Pizza Hut, debuts in the US, as does a similar spot by the newly re-formed Monkees.
1994Barbra Streisand sets a new record after grossing $16 million for a series of Madison Square Garden comeback shows.
1992Spurred by controversy over the song "Cop Killer," President George H. W. Bush speaks out against "those who use films or records or television or video games to glorify killing law enforcement officers."
1989Three years after landing their first hit, the Pet Shop Boys, notoriously averse to live performance, launch their first tour with a show at Hong Kong Coliseum.
1988Lionel Richie's wife Brenda is arrested for assaulting her husband after finding him at the apartment of another woman, Diane Alexander. The couple divorce in 1993, and in 1995, Richie marries Alexander.
Springsteen Dances (In The Dark) With Courteney Cox
1984After a failed attempt shooting a studio video for "Dancing In The Dark," Bruce Springsteen does it live at his concert in St. Paul, Minnesota. During Clarence Clemons' sax solo, he brings a doe-eyed, 19-year-old Courteney Cox on stage to dance with him.
The song is already climbing the charts, released in advance of the Born In The U.S.A. album. MTV, based in his stronghold of New York City, is clamoring for a video, so Springsteen summons director Brian De Palma to the show, who sets up cameras and plants the unknown actress Courteney Cox up front, where she looks adoringly at Bruce before he calls her up to do some not-so-dirty dancing. Her bit is the only part that is staged - the crowd is real, and so is the performance. Videos like this are commonplace in the '80s, but typically done by shooting the band at soundcheck, then mixing it with footage from the actual show. This one is all shot midway through the concert, which helps capture Springsteen and the E Street Band in their groove. The crowd doesn't know a video is being shot, but realizes something is going on when Springsteen plays the song again so De Palma can get more footage (and again, Cox comes up to dance). MTV puts the video in rotation as soon as they can, and Springsteen soon becomes a star on the network. The song climbs to #2 on the Hot 100, and the next six songs from the album all reach the Top 10. Springsteen's next video is for the title track, and it contains lots of American flag imagery to coincide with the album art. It's wildly successful, but obscures the message of the song, which is about Vietnam veterans and their struggles after returning home. Courteney Cox gets a few bit parts before landing a role on the TV series Family Ties, where she plays Michael J. Fox's girlfriend the last two seasons the show is on the air. In 1994, she stars in Friends, which runs for ten years and is one of the ten highest-rated shows every season.
No comments:
Post a Comment