1936 - It's 1936 and barbershop-styled vocal groups were all the rage - so much so, that The SPEBSQSA (Society for the Preservation and Encouragement of Barber Shop Quartet Singing in America) was founded. Watch this educational mini-documentary presentation of the barbershop style, its origins, and how the Barbershop Harmony Society has grown through the years as it continually works to preserve and propogate the style to new generations.
1956 - I love Elvis Presley, please understand me, dear reader. But if you look back at what Elvis was doing at this time, 1956, and watch James Brown and what he was doing...well...there just is absolutely no comparison. This is the day in '56 when the late, great James Brown debuted on the R&B charts with this song, Please, Please, Please.
1961 - Precisely 50 years ago, Bob Dylan performed at New York's Gerdes Folk City, as the opening act for bluesman John Lee Hooker. Dylan performed a set with a bunch of Guthrie-style ballads and his own lyrics set to traditional tunes. A New York Times review by Robert Shelton alerted A&R man John Hammond, who then went to see Dylan perform, immediately signing the song writer singer to Columbia Records. Hammond also produced Dylan's 1962 debut album. This gig was Dylan's first professional gig in Manhattan. And this was what Hooker was doing way back then.
1966 - Now chairman of the board of his own record company, Reprise, Frank Sinatra recorded this classic song on this day, performed here, though, towards the end of his life. This is Strangers in the Night.
1968 - BY now they were beginning to be known around their home country, USA, tonight in 1968 Big Brother & the Holding Company made their national TV debut on ABC's Hollywood Palace. There is no record of that performance, but is their performance on the same show, later that year, and introduced by Maxwell Smart, dear reader. This was one of the final times Joplin appeared with The Holding Company.
1970 - Paul McCartney issues a statement today, announcing a "temporary break with the Beatles." He cited "personal differences", adding that he would no longer record with John Lennon. In the same year, and on the same day, April 11, one of the world's greatest blues guitar players, Peter Green, announced that he would be leaving his band, Fleetwood Mac. A year before he departed the band performed this classic song on live television. The song remains one of my all-time favourite songs. Dear reader, this is Oh Well, part1.
1983 - This was the day and the year that R.E.M.'s first album, Murmur, was released. Five years later, same day, Cher won the Best Actress Oscar for her role in Moonstruck, the trailer of which follows.
1990 - It's 1990 and Elton John sang at the funeral of AIDS victim Ryan White, while a year later Ringo Starr was a guest on Fox TV's The Simpsons. Couldn't find the video for this dear reader, howzabout this?
1994 - A Seattle, WA, coroner ruled that Kurt Cobain's death was a suicide.(For full details and videos of his death go to our search section and go through our archives. Meanwhile, Nirvana's album, In Utero, was certified double-platinum. From the sublime to the ridiculous, and a year later, folkies Peter, Paul and Mary released their 17th album, LifeLines. On this day in 1997, Savage Garden released their self-titled debut album. Here they are receiving video awards, and then an interview in Canada.
