This Day In Music: March 16

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Born on this day:

1942, Jerry Jeff Walker, US singer, songwriter
1948, Michael Bruce, guitar (Alice Cooper)
1954, Jimmy Nail, UK actor, singer
1954, Nancy Wilson, vocals (Heart)
1959, Flavor Flav (Public Enemy)

1959, doo-wop group The Platters scored their only U.K. and U.S. #1 with “Smoke Gets In Your Eyes.”

1964, The Beatles set a new record for advance sales in the U.S. with 2,100,000 copies of their latest single, “Can’t Buy Me Love.”

1965, The Rolling Stones were at #1 on the U.K. singles chart with “The Last Time.” the group’s third U.K. #1 and the first A-side for songwriters Mick Jagger and Keith Richards.

1969, Fleetwood Mac, The Move, Amen Corner, Peter Sarstedt, The Tymes, Harmony Grass and Geno Washington all appeared at Pop World ‘69 at London’s Wembley Empire Pool.

1970, Motown singer Tammi Terrell died of a brain tumor at the age of 24. Initially Terrell recorded solo but from 1967 onwards she recorded a series of duets with Marvin Gaye. She had collapsed onstage into Gaye’s arms on October 14, 1967 during a concert in Hampton, Virginia. Marvin reacted to her death by taking a four-year hiatus from concert performance and went into self-isolation.

1972, John Lennon lodged an appeal with the U.S. INS office in New York, after he was served with deportation orders arising from a 1968 cannabis possession conviction.

1989, Bez from The Happy Mondays was arrested at Manchester Airport moments before boarding a flight to Belfast for a gig, charged with breaking bail conditions set from a previous arrest.

1991, seven members of country singer Reba McEntire’s band and her road manager are among 10 people killed when their private jet crashed in California just north of the Mexican border. For more on this story, see This Day in Music Spotlight.

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This Day in Music: March 17th

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Born on this day:
1919, Nat King Cole, singer
1938, Zola Taylor, vocals, The Platters
1941, Paul Kantner, vocals, guitar, Jefferson Airplane
1944, John Sebastian, vocals, guitar, The Lovin’ Spoonful
1951, Scott Gorham, guitar, Thin Lizzy (For more on Gorham, see This Day in Music Spotlight.)
1962, Clare Grogan, vocals, Altered Images
1967, Billy Corgan, vocals, guitar, Smashing Pumpkins
1970, Gene Ween (Aaron Freeman), guitar, vocals, Ween
1973, Caroline Corr, drums, vocals, The Corrs
1975, Justin Hawkins, vocals, The Darkness

1957, Elvis Presley bought the Graceland mansion from Mrs. Ruth Brown-Moore for $102,500. The 23-room, 10,000-square-foot home, on 13.8 acres of land, would be expanded to 17,552 square feet of living space before the King moved in a few weeks later. The original building had at one time been a place of worship, used by the Graceland Christian Church and was named after the builder’s daughter, Grace Toof.

1966, The Walker Brothers had their second U.K. #1 with the single “The Sun Ain’t Gonna Shine Anymore” (originally recorded by Frankie Valli).

1967, Otis Redding, Eddie Floyd, Carla Thomas, Sam & Dave and Booker T. and The M.G.’s appeared at London’s Finsbury Park Astoria on the first night of a 17-date U.K. tour.

1968, The Bee Gees made their U.S. television debut when they appeared on The Ed Sullivan Show.

1973, Dr. Hook and the Medicine Show’s single “The Cover of the Rolling Stone” peaked at #6 on the U.S. chart. The single was banned in the U.K. by the BBC due to the reference of the magazine.

1978, U2 won ?500 ($850) and a chance to audition for CBS Ireland in a talent contest held in Dublin. The Limerick Civic Week Pop ’78 Competition was sponsored by The Evening Express and Guinness Harp Lager.

2004, Kinks singer Ray Davies received his CBE medal from the Queen at Buckingham Palace for services to the music industry.

2006, The Smiths turned down a $5 million (?2.8m) offer to reform for a music festival. The band, which split acrimoniously in 1987, rejected the bid to get back together for the year’s Coachella festival.

2008, Ola Brunkert, the former drummer with the Swedish group ABBA, was found dead with his throat cut at his home in Majorca, Spain. Brunkert died after he hit his head against a glass door in the dining room at his home. He was found dead in his garden after trying to seek help. The 62-year-old musician had played on every ABBA album and had toured with the group.

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This Day in Music: March 14th

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Born on this day:

1933 Quincy Jones, producer
1945 Walter Parazaider, sax (Chicago)
1946 Jim Pons, bass guitar (The Leaves, The Turtles)
1983 Jordan Taylor Hanson (Hanson)

1955, CBS talent scout Arthur Godfrey turned down the chance to sign Elvis Presley. Instead, at the same audition, he signed Pat Boone.

1963, Cliff Richard & The Shadows were at #1 on the U.K. singles chart with “Summer Holiday.” Taken from the film of the same name, it was Cliff’s seventh U.K. #1.

1968, the promotional film for The Beatles’ “Lady Madonna” was broadcast in black and white on BBC’s Top Of The Pops. The film was shot while the group was recording the track “Hey Bulldog” in Studio 2, EMI Studios.

1972, soul singer Linda Jones, who had a 1967 U.S. #21 single with “Hypnotized,” died at the age of 26 in New York after collapsing into a diabetic coma following a performance at Harlem’s Apollo Theatre.

1983, Jon Bon Jovi formed the band Bon Jovi. See This Day in Music Spotlight .

1985, Dead Or Alive were taken off the U.K. music television show The Tube after admitting they were incapable of playing live. The group had scored a 1985 U.K. #1 with “You Spin Me Round (Like a Record).”

1990, Flea and Chad Smith from The Red Hot Chili Peppers were arrested for sexually harassing a woman in Daytona Beach, Florida. There were each fined $1,000.

1991, American songwriter Doc Pomus died. He co-wrote with Mort Shuman many early ’60s hits, including “A Teenager in Love,” “Save the Last Dance for Me,” “Sweets for My Sweet,” “Can’t Get Used to Losing You,” “Little Sister,” “Suspicion,” “Surrender” and “Viva Las Vegas.”

1995, with the release of Me Against The World, Tupac Shakur became the first male solo artist to have a #1 album on the Billboard chart while in prison.

2001, Peter Blake, who designed The Beatles’ classic Sgt. Pepper album cover, sued the group’s record company, EMI, for more money. Blake was given a one-off payment of $340 in 1967, but became “cheesed off” that the company had not offered to pay more money.

2006, U2 topped Rolling Stone’s annual list of 2005’s biggest money earners with $154.2 million. The top five were rounded out by The Rolling Stones ($92.5 million), The Eagles ($ 63.2 million), Paul McCartney ($56 million) and Elton John ($48.9 million).

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This Day in Music: March 15th

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Born on this day:

1940, Phil Lesh, bass, The Grateful Dead
1941, Mike Love, vocals, The Beach Boys
1944, Sly Stone, vocals, organ, guitar, Sly and the Family Stone
1946, Howard E. Scott, guitar, War
1947, Ry Cooder, guitarist
1955, Dee Snider, vocals, Twisted Sister
1962, Terence Trent D’Arby, singer
1963, Bret Michaels, vocals, Poison
1968, Mark McGrath, vocals, Sugar Ray
1972, Mark Hoppus, bass, vocals, Blink-182
1975, Will.i.am, rapper, producer, Black Eyed Peas
1977, Joe Hahn, DJ, Linkin Park

1955, Elvis Presley signed a management contract with Colonel Tom Parker. Parker had previously managed the Great Parker Pony Circus with one of the acts being a troupe of dancing chickens.

1964, The Rolling Stones kicked off a 58-date U.K. tour at the Invicta Ballroom in Chatham, Kent. Half the dates saw the Stones playing two shows in one evening.

1973, Roberta Flack was at #1 on the U.S. singles chart with “Killing Me Softly with His Song” and Elton John had the #1 album with Don’t Shoot Me I’m Only the Piano Player.

1975, Led Zeppelin went to #1 on the U.K. chart with the double album Physical Graffiti, the first on their own Swan Song label. The album spent six weeks at #1 on the U.S. chart.

1977, Pink Floyd played the first of six sold-out nights at Empire Pool, Wembley, London, England.

1986, The Bangles were at #2 on the U.K. singles chart with “Manic Monday,” a song written by Prince under the pseudonym Christopher. It also made #2 in the U.S., held off #1 by Prince’s own “Kiss.”

1989, The Rolling Stones signed a $70 million (?40 million) contract to play 50 North American dates. It was the largest contract in rock history.

2002, Yoko Ono unveiled a seven-foot bronze statue of John Lennon overlooking the check-in hall of Liverpool’s John Lennon airport. The re-branding of the airport featured a sketch of Lennon's face with the words “Above Us Only Skies.” For more on this story, see This Day in Music Spotlight.

2004, Former Crazy Town guitarist Rust Epique died of heart failure from an apparent heart attack at his home in Las Vegas. Epique was 35. Crazy Town had the 1999 world-wide #1 single “Butterfly.”

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This Day in Music: March 13th

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Born on this day:

1933, Mike Stoller, songwriter
1939, Neil Sedaka, singer, songwriter
1959, Ronnie Rogers, guitar, T’Pau
1960, Adam Clayton, bass, U2
1972, Common, rapper
1973, David Draiman, vocals, Disturbed

1964, Billboard reported that sales of Beatles singles currently accounted for 60 percent of the U.S. singles market and The Beatles’ album, Meet the Beatles, had reached a record 3.5 million copies sold.

1965, Eric Clapton quit The Yardbirds due to musical differences with the other band members. Clapton wanted to continue in a blues-type vein, while the rest of the band preferred the more commercial style of their first hit, “For Your Love.”

1971, Brewer and Shipley entered the U.S. singles chart with “One Toke Over the Line.” The song, which featured The Grateful Dead’s Jerry Garcia on steel guitar, peaked at #10 despite being banned by radio stations for drug references. Brewer and Shipley maintained that the word “toke” meant token, as in ticket – hence the line “waitin’ downtown at the railway station, one toke over the line.”

1976, The Four Seasons started a three-week run at #1 on the U.S. singles chart with “December 1963 (Oh What a Night),” the group’s fifth U.S. #1. It also was their only U.K. #1.

1985, Bob Geldof and Midge Ure received the best-selling A-side award at the 30th Ivor Novello Awards for “Do They Know it’s Christmas.”

1987, Bob Seger and the Silver Bullet Band received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

1998, English reggae and ska artist Judge Dread (Alex Hughes) died after collapsing as he walked off stage in Canterbury, England. He achieved 10 U.K. hit singles during the ’70s and was the first white recording artist to have a reggae hit in Jamaica. Dread has the most banned radio songs of all time.

1999, Cher started a four-week run at #1 on the U.S. singles chart with “Believe,” making Cher, at 53, the oldest woman to top the Hot 100.

2006, The Sex Pistols refused to attend their own induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Blondie, Herb Alpert, Lynyrd Skynyrd, Miles Davis and Black Sabbath were also inducted. For more on this story, see This Day in Music Spotlight.

2007, Coffee house Starbucks announced the launch of its own music label, saying it would sign both established and new artists. The chain, which had 13,000 stores worldwide, had already released albums under its Hear Music brand, licensing songs from other companies. Starbucks bosses said the label would now become more independent and that music fit the firm’s identity.

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Bruce Springsteen’s New Album Due March 6

Recently we told you that Bruce Springsteen’s forthcoming album was produced by Ron Aniello (Jars of Clay, Candlebox) and would feature contributions from Rage Against the Machine’s Tom Morello and members of the E Street Band. Now, we can reveal that the Boss’s 17th studio album will be called Wrecking Ball and will be released on March 6 in North America.

“The lyrics tell a story you can't hear anywhere else and the music is his most innovative of recent years,” Springsteen manager Jon Landau said in a statement, via Rolling Stone. “The writing is some of the best of his career and both veteran fans and those who are new to Bruce will find much to love on Wrecking Ball.”

The album’s name comes from a song that Bruce and the E Streeters debuted in 2009 when they played some of the last shows at Giants Stadium. The record also features “Land of Hope and Dreams,” a song Springsteen and the gang have been playing live since 1999.

The other nine songs on Wrecking Ball are completely new. Springsteen is streaming kickoff track “We Take Care of Our Own” on his website. Check out the tracklist below:

Bruce Springsteen, Wrecking Ball

1. “We Take Care of Our Own”
2. “Easy Money”
3. “Shackled and Down”
4. “Jack of All Trades”
5. “Death to My Hometown”
6. “The Depression”
7. “Wrecking Ball”
8. “You’ve Got It”
9. “Rocky Ground”
10. “Land of Hope and Dreams”
11. “We Are Live”

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New Live Iron Maiden Album Due in March

Metal veterans Iron Maiden will release a new live album and DVD, En Vivo, in March.

According to NME.com, the album is a live recording of a show in Santiago, Chile, last year. Filmed digitally using 22 HD cameras at the Estadio Nacional Stadium last April, the live tracks were mixed by Maiden producer Kevin Shirley.

En Vivo tracklisting:

“Satellite 15”
“The Final Frontier”
“El Dorado”
“2 Minutes to Midnight”
“The Talisman”
“Coming Home”
“Dance of Death”
“The Trooper”
“The Wicker Man”
“Blood Brothers”
“When the Wild Wind Blows”
“The Evil That Men Do”
“Fear of the Dark”
“Iron Maiden”
“The Number of the Beast”
“Hallowed Be Thy Name”
“Running Free”

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