Daily Dose of Music History

We Are The World Starts Three-Week Run At Number 1 in 1985 – April 27, 2016

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On this day in music, April 27th in1985, USA For Africa started a three-week run at No.1 on the US chart with ‘We Are The World’. The US artists’ answer to Band Aid had an all-star cast including Stevie Wonder, Tina Turner, Bruce Springsteen, Diana Ross, Bob Dylan, Daryl Hall, Huey Lewis, Cyndi Lauper, Kim Carnes, Ray Charles, Billy Joel and Paul Simon plus the composer’s of the track, Michael Jackson and Lionel Richie.
 
Happy Birthday: Cuba Gooding, Ace Frehley, Kate Pierson, and Patrick Stump.

U2 Starts Five-Week Run At Number 1 With Joshua Tree In 1987 – April 25, 2016

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On this day in music, April 25th in 1987, U2 started a five-week run at No.1 on the US album chart with their fifth studio album “Joshua Tree.” Inspired by American tour experiences, literature, and politics, the album topped the charts in over 20 countries, and is one of the world’s all-time best-selling albums, with over 25 million copies sold. The album which won a Grammy Award for Album of the Year produced the hit singles ‘With or Without You’, ‘I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For’, and ‘Where the Streets Have No Name’.

Happy Birthday: Ella Fitzgerald, Albert King, Stu Cook, and Simon Fowler.

Beatles Complete Sgt Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band Album In 1967 – April 21, 2016

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On this day in music, April 21st in 1967 – Working at Abbey Road studios in London, the Beatles completed the sessions for Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band. The final recordings were a short section of gibberish and noise which would follow ‘A Day in the Life.’. They recorded assorted noises and voices, which engineer Geoff Emerick then cut-up and randomly re-assembled. These were omitted from the American version of the album.

 
Happy Birthday: Alan Wagner, Iggy Pop, Robert Smith

Happy Birthday to Eric Clapton – March 30, 1945

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HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO ERIC CLAPTON: Born on this day, March 20, 1945.Eric Patrick Clapton is an English rock and blues guitarist, singer and songwriter. He is the only three-time inductee to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame: once as a solo artist and separately as a member of the Yardbirds and Cream. Clapton has been referred to as one of the most important and influential guitarists of all time. Clapton ranked second in Rolling Stone magazine’s list of the “100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time” and fourth in Gibson’s “Top 50 Guitarists of All Time”. He was also named number five in Time magazine’s list of “The 10 Best Electric Guitar Players” in 2009.

Remembering Leo Fender – March 21, 2016

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REMEMBERING LEO FENDER: On this day, March 21st, in 1991, Leo Fender, died from Parkinson’s disease. Clarence Leonidas “Leo” Fender was an American inventor who founded Fender Electric Instrument Manufacturing Company, or “Fender” for short. In January 1965, he sold the company to CBS and later founded two other musical instrument companies, Music Man and G&L Musical Instruments.
 
The guitars, bass guitars, and amplifiers he designed from the 1940s on are still relevant: the Fender Telecaster (1950) was the first mass-produced solid-body electric guitar; the Fender Stratocaster (1954) is among the world’s most iconic electric guitars; the Fender Precision Bass (1951) set the standard for electric bass guitars, and the Fender Bassman amplifier, popular enough in its own right, became the basis for later amplifiers (notably by Marshall and Mesa Boogie) that dominated rock and roll music. Leo Fender was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1992 – a unique achievement given that he never learned to play the instruments that he made a career of building.

Happy Birthday to Quincy Jones – March 14, 2016

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HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO QUINCY JONES: On this day, March 14, in 1933, Quincy Jones was born. Quincy Jones.is an American record producer, conductor, arranger, composer, musician, television producer, film producer, instrumentalist, magazine founder, and entertainment company executive, His career spans six decades in the entertainment industry with a record 79 Grammy Award nominations and 28 Grammy Awards,including a Grammy Legend Award in 1991. Jones and was the producer of the three albums by Michael Jackson, Off The Wall, Bad and Thriller which has now sold more than 100 million copies worldwide.

Dark Side of the Moon Release in 1973 – March 10, 2016

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Dark Side of the Moon
DARK SIDE OF THE MOON” RELEASED IN 1973: On this day, March 10th, in 1973, Pink Floyd released their eighth studio album The Dark Side of The Moon in the US. It remained in the US charts for 741 discontinuous weeks from 1973 to 1988, longer than any other album in history. After moving to the Billboard Top Pop Catalog Chart, the album notched up a further 759 weeks, and had reached a total of over 1,500 weeks on the combined charts by May 2006. With an estimated 45 million copies sold, it is Pink Floyd’s most commercially successful album and one of the best-selling albums worldwide.
 
Happy Birthday: Carrie Underwood, Rick Rubin, Tom Scholz, Neneh Cherry, and Edie Brickell.

Compact Disc Systems Introduced To North America And Europe Today In 1983. – March 2, 2016

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COMPACT DISC SYSTEMS INTRODUCED TO THE PUBLIC TODAY In 1983: On this day, March 2nd, in 1983, a new digital audio system, a five-inch compact disc containing up to one hour of music was launched by Sony, Philips and Polygram in Europe and North America.

Happy Birthday: Karen Carpenter, Jon Bon Jovi, Larry Carlton, Eddie Money, and Lou Reed.

Remembering Davy Jones – February 29, 2016

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REMEMBERING DAVY JONES: On this day, February 29th, in 2012, Davy Jones, the Manchester-born lead singer with 60s band The Monkees died at age 66 in his sleep at his home in Florida after suffering a massive heart attack. Jones who appeared as a teenager in soap opera Coronation Street, playing Ena Sharples’s grandson was also a former apprentice jockey in Newmarket. Jones remained a keen horseman all his life, winning his first race in England as a jockey in 1996.