Music History: March 15
2016 Sony pays $750 million to Michael Jackson's estate for the King of Pop's half of Sony/ATV Music, a publishing company that owns the rights to some 4,000 pop songs, including 250 Lennon-McCartney tunes from the Beatles catalog. Jackson bought ATV Music in 1985 for $47.5 million and merged with Sony a decade later. Jackson's estate retains the rights to songs written by Jackson.
2014 Gary Burger of The Monks dies at age 71.
2011 Atlanta Rhythm Section lead singer Ronnie Hammond dies of heart failure at age 60.
2011 Big Jack Johnson
2009 Alain Bashung
2008 In London, Ex-Foundations member Peter MacBeth is sentenced to six years on pedophilia and sexual assault charges.
2008 Stone Temple Pilots announce they are reuniting for one final tour.
2005 In New York City, the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inducts Percy Sledge, The O'Jays, U2, Buddy Guy, and The Pretenders.
1991 Doc Pomus
1987 "Jacob's Ladder" by Huey Lewis & the News climbs to #1 in the US. The song was written by Bruce Hornsby and his brother, John Hornsby.
1983 Taylor Hanson (Hanson)
1981 Eric Clapton has a brush with death as a severe ulcer sends him to the hospital. He's forced to cancel the remaining 47 dates on his tour and is out for seven months.
1980 On his 47th birthday, Quincy Jones is awarded a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 1500 Vine Street.
1979 Jacques Brautbar (Phantom Planet)
1972 California Governor Ronald Reagan grants a pardon to Merle Haggard, absolving him of his 1957 burglary that sent him to prison for three years.
1972 Carole King's Tapestry takes Album of The Year at the Grammy Awards. Carly Simon wins for best new artist.
1970 Kristian Bush of Sugarland is born in Tennessee.
1970 Mary Ann Ganser (The Shangri-Las)
1970 John Lennon's Instant Karma! (We All Shine On) hits #1
1969 Michael Bland (Soul Asylum)
1968 The BBC-TV program Top Of The Pops broadcasts The Beatles new promotional video for "Lady Madonna," which, oddly enough, is made up entirely of clips from the band's recording of "Hey Bulldog."
1965 Petula Clark makes her American TV debut singing "Downtown" and "I Know a Place" on The Ed Sullivan Show.
1963 Mike Muir (Suicidal Tendencies)
1963 Gerry Marsden of The Pacemakers sneaks a custom-made guitar purchased in Germany through British customs and is fined sixty pounds.
1960 Sam Cooke begins an unprecedented tour of the West Indies with a concert in Jamaica's Montego Bay.
1958 The first ever Gold Record is awarded for sales of a million copies. It goes to Perry Como's "Catch A Falling Star."
1958 No. 1 Billboard Pop Hit: The Champs' Tequila
1955 Popular Country star Jimmy Dean interviews Elvis Presley on Dean's Washington, DC television show Town and Country Time. A nervous Elvis answers every question with "yep" and "nope."
1951 Spanish entertainer Charo is born with a much longer moniker: María del Rosario Mercedes Pilar Martínez Molina Baeza.
1950 Rick Dees
1945 Country & Western singer/songwriter Michael Murphey is born in Texas.
1945 Walter Parazaider (Chicago)
1945 Michael Martin Murphy
1943 Jim Pons (The Turtles, Mothers Of Invention)
1934 Shirley Scott
1933 Quincy Jones
1931 Phil Phillips
1912 Les Brown
Featured Events
2011 Long neglected Neil Diamond is finally inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame along with Alice Cooper, Tom Waits, Dr. John, Darlene Love and Leon Russell.
1964 Billboard Magazine reports that Beatles records make up 60% of all singles sold.
Johnny Cash Flips Off Country Radio
1998Weeks after Johnny Cash's Unchained
wins the Grammy for Best Country Album, his producer Rick Rubin takes
out a full-page ad in Billboard with a photo of the singer giving the
middle finger along with the text, "American Recordings and Johnny Cash
would like to acknowledge the Nashville music establishment and country
radio for your support."
The photo was taken by the renowned music photographer Jim Marshall during a Johnny Cash concert at San Quentin prison in 1969. Cash made the gesture after being asked to "do a shot for the warden." The photo was not widely seen until Rubin used it in the ad to make the point that Cash got the Grammy win even without support from country radio, which had little use for the aging legend on their playlists. But while country stations remained enamored with the likes of Shania Twain and Garth Brooks, Cash found a wider audience with Unchained, which had cross-genre appeal.
For Rubin, the $20,000 it cost for the ad is money well spent, and draws a lot more attention to Cash's latest endeavors. The photo becomes what would later be called a meme, repurposed and redistributed in many forms. Willie Nelson even hangs it in his tour bus as an emblem of real country music.
The photo was taken by the renowned music photographer Jim Marshall during a Johnny Cash concert at San Quentin prison in 1969. Cash made the gesture after being asked to "do a shot for the warden." The photo was not widely seen until Rubin used it in the ad to make the point that Cash got the Grammy win even without support from country radio, which had little use for the aging legend on their playlists. But while country stations remained enamored with the likes of Shania Twain and Garth Brooks, Cash found a wider audience with Unchained, which had cross-genre appeal.
For Rubin, the $20,000 it cost for the ad is money well spent, and draws a lot more attention to Cash's latest endeavors. The photo becomes what would later be called a meme, repurposed and redistributed in many forms. Willie Nelson even hangs it in his tour bus as an emblem of real country music.
No comments:
Post a Comment
Comments Are Moderated And Saved