1653 - Today marks the birthday of 17th century musical composer, Johann Pachelbel, who was born today 358 years ago, and some of his music os still popular with music lovers all over the world. Can you imagine any of today's musical compositions still being around a few centuries down the track? Pachelbel was a German Baroque composer, who also taught music and played organ.He was instrumental in bringing the south German organ tradition to its peak during that period. Much of his music was sacred and secular music, and his contributions to the development of the chorale prelude and fugue have earned him a place among the most important composers of the middle Baroque era. Pachelbel was popular during his lifetime, and many of his pupils became composers of south and central Germany. Today, on what would have been his 358th birthday, we celebrate with his best known composition, the Canon in D, the only canon he wrote – although it is often regarded more as a passacaglia, and it is in this mode that it has been arranged and transcribed for many different media. I was introduced to this song by my second wife, Suzi, who told me she wanted it played at her funeral. And it was. This is the Orchestra da Camera di Verona.
1854 - Also born today - a couple of hundred years later - was another great German composer, Engelbert Humperdinck, best known for his opera, Hänsel und Gretel. Humperdinck was born at Siegburg in the Rhine Province, and following some piano lessons, wrote his first composition at the age of seven. His parents wanted him to study architecture, and tried to discourage him taking on music as a profession. But like most teenagers he defied his parents and began taking music classes under Ferdinand Hiller at the Cologne Conservatory in 1872. four years later he won a scholarship that enabled him to go to Munich, where he studied with Franz Lachner and later with Josef Rheinberger. This is the Tulsa Youth Symphony, joined by members of the Oral Roberts University Orchestra, present Evening Prayer and Dream Pantomime from Hansel und Gretel by Engelbert Humperdinck, with Mr. Ronald Wheeler as conductor. Presented at the Union Performing Arts Center, Tulsa, Oklahoma, December 8, 2008.
1956 - This is the day Elvis Presley went out with his newfound money, sharing his success with his family by purchasing his mother a pink Cadillac. This is the vehicle, now housed at Graceland, and the following short video is another, more modern take on the old pink caddilac - same vintage as the one he bought his mother.
1965 - We go way back 46 years and one of the very first of the American rock music TV show, Shindig, one of the world's first. This is the night the show featured James Brown, Booker T. & the MG's, and Tina Turner, and the songs they sing are right here on the following video, Please Please Please, A Fool In Love, & Green Onions.
1967 - Guitar Boz Scaggs, later to enjoy his own successful career, joined the Steve Miller Band today, and also sang lead vocal on this song, put to amazing fur footage.
1977 - New York new wave band, Blondie, signed its first major record company contract today, with Chrysalis Records, the English record label that would later sign a slew of acts, including Billy Idol, Pat Benetar and Chrissie Amphlett's Divinyls. This is Blondie from 34 years ago as they perform the James Bond theme song, Goldfinger.
1977 - Speaking of Billy Idol, his first band, Generation X, released their debut single Your Generation, today. This is London pseudo punk pop outfit, Generation X, with that very song.
1979 - This is the day that INXS made their live debut in Sydney, Australia. Accordingly, we have scoured for this little gem, supposedly a real demo from the band, sometime in 1979. I don't know for sure if that's totally correct, but it'd be brilliant if someone out there who has a better knowledge than I, would confirm that for us all. it's a brilliant song, supposedly recorded at ABC Studio in Sydney, 1979, I am told. Great song. Silent Night.
1979 - Hard to believe that at this time, on the other side of the world, on the very same day and year, U2 released *their* first record U2-3, in Ireland. And, hey, here they are, with their first television appearance in October of that year, a show called Aspects of Rock.
1983 - Mick Jones was fired from the Clash by Paul Simonon and Joe Strummer, today, the same day that Paul McCartney released his Press to Play LP in 1986. And how quickly we forgot Mick Jagger's Let's Work song, released on the same day a year later. It's September 1, 1995 & Louis Armstrong was honoured on a U.S. postage stamp today, so that gives us another excuse to play something from this bundle of talent and fun and sunshine. So howzabout a little bit of Give Me A Kiss To Build A Dream On, followed by Blueberry Hill. This is Satchmo!
1854 - Also born today - a couple of hundred years later - was another great German composer, Engelbert Humperdinck, best known for his opera, Hänsel und Gretel. Humperdinck was born at Siegburg in the Rhine Province, and following some piano lessons, wrote his first composition at the age of seven. His parents wanted him to study architecture, and tried to discourage him taking on music as a profession. But like most teenagers he defied his parents and began taking music classes under Ferdinand Hiller at the Cologne Conservatory in 1872. four years later he won a scholarship that enabled him to go to Munich, where he studied with Franz Lachner and later with Josef Rheinberger. This is the Tulsa Youth Symphony, joined by members of the Oral Roberts University Orchestra, present Evening Prayer and Dream Pantomime from Hansel und Gretel by Engelbert Humperdinck, with Mr. Ronald Wheeler as conductor. Presented at the Union Performing Arts Center, Tulsa, Oklahoma, December 8, 2008.
1956 - This is the day Elvis Presley went out with his newfound money, sharing his success with his family by purchasing his mother a pink Cadillac. This is the vehicle, now housed at Graceland, and the following short video is another, more modern take on the old pink caddilac - same vintage as the one he bought his mother.
1965 - We go way back 46 years and one of the very first of the American rock music TV show, Shindig, one of the world's first. This is the night the show featured James Brown, Booker T. & the MG's, and Tina Turner, and the songs they sing are right here on the following video, Please Please Please, A Fool In Love, & Green Onions.
1967 - Guitar Boz Scaggs, later to enjoy his own successful career, joined the Steve Miller Band today, and also sang lead vocal on this song, put to amazing fur footage.
1977 - New York new wave band, Blondie, signed its first major record company contract today, with Chrysalis Records, the English record label that would later sign a slew of acts, including Billy Idol, Pat Benetar and Chrissie Amphlett's Divinyls. This is Blondie from 34 years ago as they perform the James Bond theme song, Goldfinger.
1977 - Speaking of Billy Idol, his first band, Generation X, released their debut single Your Generation, today. This is London pseudo punk pop outfit, Generation X, with that very song.
1979 - This is the day that INXS made their live debut in Sydney, Australia. Accordingly, we have scoured for this little gem, supposedly a real demo from the band, sometime in 1979. I don't know for sure if that's totally correct, but it'd be brilliant if someone out there who has a better knowledge than I, would confirm that for us all. it's a brilliant song, supposedly recorded at ABC Studio in Sydney, 1979, I am told. Great song. Silent Night.
1979 - Hard to believe that at this time, on the other side of the world, on the very same day and year, U2 released *their* first record U2-3, in Ireland. And, hey, here they are, with their first television appearance in October of that year, a show called Aspects of Rock.
1983 - Mick Jones was fired from the Clash by Paul Simonon and Joe Strummer, today, the same day that Paul McCartney released his Press to Play LP in 1986. And how quickly we forgot Mick Jagger's Let's Work song, released on the same day a year later. It's September 1, 1995 & Louis Armstrong was honoured on a U.S. postage stamp today, so that gives us another excuse to play something from this bundle of talent and fun and sunshine. So howzabout a little bit of Give Me A Kiss To Build A Dream On, followed by Blueberry Hill. This is Satchmo!
