24
Featured Events
2008Leona Lewis and Jimmy Page perform during the closing ceremony of the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games at the National Stadium (also known as the Bird's Nest). The duo perform the Led Zeppelin classic "Whole Lotta Love."More
1998Bob Geldof of The Boomtown Rats and Live Aid fame begins hosting a show on the London radio station XFM. In his first broadcast, he announces (incorrectly) that Ian Dury has died.More
1995Microsoft launches the Windows 95 operating system. The start-up music is composed by Brian Eno, a pioneer in ambient music who in 1978 released an album designed to soothe travelers at airports (Ambient 1: Music for Airports).More
1994Jeff Buckley's first and only album, Grace, is released to critical acclaim.More
1981Mark David Chapman, who murdered John Lennon, is sentenced to 20 years to life in prison. He is repeatedly denied parole.
1981The Rolling Stones release Tattoo You. The big hit from the album is "Start Me Up," which they first recorded with a reggae rhythm in 1977. That version was scrapped, but they rocked it up for Tattoo You with better results.
1979The Ramones' movie Rock & Roll High School opens in theaters. The title song becomes one of their classics, and the film gains a cult following.More
1974Paul Anka's "(You're) Having My Baby" hits #1 for the first of three weeks despite condemnation from feminist groups.More
24
In Music History
2021Thirty years after appearing as a baby grasping for a dollar bill on Nirvana's Nevermind album cover, Spencer Elden sues the band and others associated with the photo shoot, claiming it caused him "extreme and permanent emotional distress."
2019Billie Eilish ends a 19-week run at #1 for "Old Town Road" when "Bad Guy" claims the top spot on the Hot 100.
2016Jeanne Martin, ex-wife of the late Dean Martin, dies of cancer at age 89. She married the singer in 1949, and gave birth to three children, including Dean Paul Martin, in addition to raising four more from Dean's first marriage. They divorced in 1972.
2014Doo-wop singer Tommy Gough (of The Crests) dies of throat cancer at age 74.
2013"Royals" by Lorde goes to #1 on the Alternative chart, making her the first female solo artist to top that tally since Tracy Bonham did it in 1996 (five months before Lorde was born) with "Mother Mother."
2013The Civil Wars, the folk duo of Joy Williams and John Paul White, hit #1 in America with their self-titled sophomore album, but split up without ever performing songs from the set.
2012Country singer Randy Travis continues his string of calamitous arrests, this time for a brawl at a church in Texas where he was purportedly fighting over a woman. The incident leads to him being cited for assault, giving him another citation to add to his collection. It's still a cheaper hobby than baseball cards.
2010Teenage Dream, Katy Perry's second major-label album, is released. It goes to #1 in the US, where the first five singles, starting with "California Gurls," all top the Hot 100.
2008Barenaked Ladies frontman Ed Robertson emerges unscathed after he crashes his Cessna 206 float-plane near Bancroft, Ontario. Three other passengers, including wife Natalie, are also miraculously uninjured. The Transportation Safety Board is unable to determine the cause of the crash, but clears Robertson of any wrongdoing.
2007During a routine medical exam in Gainesville, Florida, Bo Diddley complains of dizziness and nausea and is admitted to a local hospital, where he is diagnosed as having had a heart attack. The rock legend had suffered a stroke only a few months earlier.
2007Mark Lindsay of Paul Revere & the Raiders opens Mark Lindsay's Rock And Roll Cafe in his native Portland, Oregon. The restaurant closes the next year.
2005Hal Kalin (of the Kalin Twins) dies after a car accident in Charles County, Maryland, at age 71.
2003Dick Peterson from The Kingsmen joins 753 other guitarists to perform "Louie Louie" for a charity fundraiser in Tacoma, Washington.
1999Big Band trombonist Warren Covington dies at age 78 in New York City.
1998Composer/conductor Gene Page dies after a long illness in Westwood, Los Angeles, California, at age 58. Page did arrangements for The Supremes, Whitney Houston and Barbra Streisand and many others. He also scored the 1972 Blaxploitation flick Blacula.
Sinéad O'Connor Won't Allow National Anthem
1990Sinéad O'Connor refuses to perform at the Garden State Arts Center in New Jersey until they agree not to play the US national anthem before the show.
The venue has a policy of playing "The Star Spangled Banner" before every event, but O'Connor has a policy of not having any national anthems played before her concerts, as they "have nothing to do with music in general." The venue accommodates and the show goes on, but an uproar ensues. Some radio stations ban her songs; a New York state senator suggests a boycott of her upcoming concert. There's even an incident in a Beverly Hills grocery store when a meat department worker spots her shopping and starts singing the national anthem (he is fired). O'Connor doubles down on the controversy and begins offering more noble explanations for why she won't allow the anthem. At various times, she says it's a protest of overwrought patriotism, of music censorship, and of racism. The incident becomes a springboard for O'Connor's dive into disruption, culminating in her 1992 Saturday Night Live performance where she tears up a picture of Pope John Paul II.
No comments:
Post a Comment