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Thursday, March 22, 2012

Dear Reader,
Friday March 23, and we go from the Pope to pop, to classical, to new wave and back again.
* Pope John Paul II had a dabble in pop music 13 years ago today when he released his debut album.
* Psychedelic Furs show us their pretty pink wares in 1980.
* Elvis at #1 with an old German folk song as he records a new hit with an old Italian folk song in 1960.
* Adam and the Ants show a new style of rock'n'roll new music, 31 years ago.
* It's 1963 and the Beach Boys look very...er...dapper performing this hit.
* We go way back to two John Lennon events; his marriage to Yoko Ono, shown here by Australian TV pop show host, Dick Williams, and the release of Lennon's book, In His Own Write.
* Former Creedence Clearwater Revival singer, John Fogerty shows us his solo style in 1985, on this day.
* We go classical once again with a debut of one of Haydn's pieces.
* And classical again, this time with the debut of Handel's Messiah in 1743.

* Scroll down to the bottom of the page for headlines from world's top publications: New York Times, Guardian, The Age, Rolling Stone, Spin, & many more. click on the glowing blue headlines for your daily dose.

Wednesday, April 6, 2011

April 7, 2011

1949 - Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II, usually referred to as Rodgers and Hammerstein, created a string of popular Broadway musicals in the 1940s and 1950s during what is considered the golden age of the medium. With Rodgers composing the music and Hammerstein writing the lyrics, five of their shows - Oklahoma!, Carousel, South Pacific, The King and I and The Sound of Music - were outstanding successes. Their stage musicals, and movie versions thereof, garnered 34 Tony Awards, fifteen Academy Awards, the Pulitzer Prize, and two Grammys. making them among the most successful of their kind of all time. South Pacific opened on Broadway today, April 7, 1949, and ran for over five years. Its songs Bali Ha'i, Younger than Springtime, and Some Enchanted Evening have become standards. The play is based upon two short stories by James A. Michener from his book Tales of the South Pacific, which itself was the winner of the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 1948. For their adaptation, Rodgers and Hammerstein, along with co-writer Joshua Logan, won the Pulitzer Prize for Drama in 1950. The original cast starred Mary Martin as the heroine Nellie Forbush and opera star Ezio Pinza as Emile de Becque, the French plantation owner. Also in the cast were Juanita Hall, Myron McCormick and Betta St. John. The 1958 film version, also directed by Logan, starred Mitzi Gaynor, Rossano Brazzi, John Kerr, Ray Walston, and Juanita Hall. Here is the enchanting Mr. Gaynor singing Wonderful Guy from the original movie, followed by the cast pf the revival version at the 2008 Tony Awards, and introduced by Harry Konick Jr.


1956 - Rock 'n Roll was raising the hormone level of a brand new generation in the fifties, and it brought with it an entirely new level of dance, radio and entertainment in general. Radio around the western world began special weekly programmes to air this new music, and 55 years ago today, a show called Dance Party premiered on the CBS Radio Network. Here's a tribute to radio and rock'n'roll dance swing boogie woogie to mark the occasion, and thanks to youtuber Rocky1DJ for this compilation video.

1981 - Strange how it took so long for Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band to tout Europe, but this was the day when they did indeed begin, in Hamburg, Germany. No videos available that we can find of this gig, but here are two videos of him from 1985, live in Paris - Man At The Top and Born In The USA. Bonjour or bonsoir.

1985 - Regular readers will know that access to Prince videos is nigh on impossible, but here is classic footage of him as he ended his 32-city tour in Miami, FL, today, after claiming that he was withdrawing from live performances for "an indeterminate number of years."

1985 - Hard to believe, I know, but 26 years ago today, Wham! became the first Western act to play in China, and here is footage of their first Chinese concert performing Everything She Wants. Total gold footage.

1990 - This was the night that Elton John began his life turnaround, when he surprisingly took the stage in Hoosier Dome, Indianapolis, America, on the occasion of the fourth Farm Aid event. Elton John performed Candle in the Wind for Ryan White, a young boy with AIDS, with whom John had begin to support for months when he learned the boy was dying. I relate to the story because my little boy, Troy was five years old at the time, and he was dying from AIDS. Troy died three years later. Ryan White died later that evening.

1997 - It's April 7, and 14 years ago Oafish Oasis singer, Liam Gallagher, surprised everyone by getting married to far-from-oafish actress Patsy Kensit. What was she thinking?

1997 - Life truly became academic art today when an Amsterdam university began offering a course entitled Madonna 101, and 12 months later to the day, George Michael was arrested in a public restroom in Beverly Hills for lewd conduct. He was sentenced to community service for the incident. And speaking of art imitating life, here's the tongue in...er...cheek video George made of the event.

2000 - Attempted murderer Michael Abram attended a hearing today for his attempt to murder George Harrison and his wife Olivia on December 30, 1999. Abram was ordered to appear for trial, but a date was not set. Here's the news item, along with news of Harrison's cancer operation, then a song for you.

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