Friday, September 26, 2008

This Date In Music History-September 26

Birthdays:

Roxy Music's Bryan Ferry (1945).

Stuart Tosh of the Alan Parsons Project (1951).

Los Lobos guitarist/singer/songwriter Cesar Rosas was born in Hermosillo, Mexico in 1954.

Olivia Newton-John is 60.

Lynn Anderson ("Rose Garden") turns 61.

History:

In 1887, Emile Berliner, a 36 year old German immigrant living in Washington DC, applied for a patent on his invention, the gramophone. The machine was the first to play flat discs as opposed to Thomas Edison's wax cylinder apparatus. The patent would be granted in November.

In 1960, Connie Francis became the first female singer in the Rock and Roll era to have two consecutive number one singles when "My Heart Has a Mind Of Its Own" went to the top of the Billboard chart. It followed "Everybody's Somebody's Fool.”

The Beatles released their 13th album in the UK, "Abbey Road" in 1969. It’s issued in the US a week later and is the last album they will ever make together as a group. Within a month, the LP begins an eleven week run on Billboard's Hot 200 album chart.

Today in 1964, the song "Oh, Pretty Woman" by Roy Orbison topped the charts and stayed there for 3 weeks.

Robert Palmer ("Bad Case Of Loving You") died of a heart attack in 2003.

Bessie Smith died in a car crash in 1937. One of the first great blues and jazz singers, she became known as "the Empress of the Blues."

In 1964, the Kinks released their single "You Really Got Me." It becomes their first American hit, peaking at No. 7.

Promoter Bill Graham opened the Fillmore West in San Francisco in 1969. It quickly becomes the epicenter of the city's psychedelic-band boom.

According to Tamla-Motown, label act the Jackson 5 sold 10 million singles in the space of nine months in 1970. The feat becomes a world record.

John Lennon released his solo album Walls and Bridge in 1974. Featuring the Elton John-assisted single "Whatever Gets You Thru the Night," it becomes his last album of original material for six years. It will reach #1 in the US and #6 in the UK.

The late, great George Gershwin was born in Brooklyn, NY in 1898. His works include "Swanee" and "Rhapsody in Blue."

The Clash released their first U.S. single in 1979. It was their remake of Bobby Fuller Four's "I Fought The Law."

The initial 300,000-unit shipment of Elton John's "Candle In The Wind 1997" sold out in Japan on its first day of release in 1997.

The late Marty Robbins ("A White Sport Coat") was born in 1925.

Dusty Springfield entered a recording studio in Memphis in 1968 to lay down tracks for what will prove to be the critically acclaimed LP "Dusty In Memphis", which will include her US #10 hit, "Son Of A Preacher Man".

In 2007, following five months of testimony, a mistrial was declared in the murder case of music producer Phil Spector. After deliberating for twelve days, the jury told Superior Court Judge Larry Paul Fidler that they were deadlocked 10 to 2 on whether Spector murdered actress Lana Clarkson more than 4½ years ago.

It had been nearly a decade but Paul McCartney was back on the road in 1989. The world tour, with over 100 shows, started in Drammen, Norway. McCartney played his solo material and tossed in some Beatles ("Got To Get You Into My Life") and Wings ("Band On The Run") songs.

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