September 22, 2011
1989 - One of music's greatest and longest lasting songwriters was Irving Berlin, who died 22 years ago today, aged 101. One of music's greatest ever composers. here is our tribute to Mr. Berlin. We celebrate this great composer's life with two songs; first up, a brilliant song, Let's Face The Music And Dance, with a montage of dancing featuring Rita Hayworth, Fred Astaire, Gene Kelly, Cyd Charisse, Ava Gardner, Sophia Loren, Deborah Kerr, Cary Grant, Ginger Rogers, Katherine Hepburn, Jimmy Stewart. The song is sung by Nat King Cole. You don't get better than this. Then we have Willie Nelson singing one of Berlin's beautiful tunes, Blue Skies.
1937 - Red Norvo, nicknamed 'Mr. Swing', was a musician in the 30s, who was one of jazz's early exponents of the vibraphone. He helped establish the xylophone, marimba and then the vibraphone as viable jazz instruments. His trio - actually a quartet - often featured jazz and western swing guitar player Jimmy Wyble. This is the day the trio recorded the Russian Lullaby.
1962 - Bob Dylan made his first appearance at Carnegie Hall tonight, and for details and video go to our archive search engine. Two years later, on the same day, the musical Fiddler on the Roof opened on Broadway, the first of what would be 3, 242 performances. This is a video clip of what has become the most famous songs from the movie version of the play.
1965 - It is 46 years since The Supremes made the studio recording of their global hit, I Hear a Symphony, and this is their live vocal performance, a rare piece of footage, probably from the American TV show, Hullabaloo. For all things Supreme, go to our archive or search engine.
1965 - A very young Who began their brief tour of Scandinavia today, and during the tour Roger Daltrey and Keith Moon argued to such an extent that Daltrey reportedly punched the shit out of moon. Sadly no footage of the punch nor the tour, but what about this 1965 footage of the band on an unnamed TV show - Moon is magnetic.
1966 - This is the year Rolling Stones began to come into their own in terms of songwriting, but also their own style of clothing, clearly opting for the 'mod' fashion of the day. And this is the day they released Have You Seen Your Mother, Baby?
1972 - David Bowie began his very first American tour with the Spiders from Mars, today. This video is an amazing piece of music history featuring not just Bowie, but one of the unheralded rock'n'roll guitar greats, Mick Ronson.
1980 - Notorious American music man David Geffen, formed Geffen records today, and very quickly signed John Lennon, and five years later on the same day we saw the first Farm-Aid concert, which raised $10 million for american farmers. Almost a decade later on the same day, Bruce Springsteen joined Jimmy Cliff onstage and they sang Trapped. The song was recorded by Springsteen for the We Are The World album. This is Jimmy Cliff live on the David Letterman show in the same year.
1989 - One of music's greatest and longest lasting songwriters was Irving Berlin, who died 22 years ago today, aged 101. One of music's greatest ever composers. here is our tribute to Mr. Berlin. We celebrate this great composer's life with two songs; first up, a brilliant song, Let's Face The Music And Dance, with a montage of dancing featuring Rita Hayworth, Fred Astaire, Gene Kelly, Cyd Charisse, Ava Gardner, Sophia Loren, Deborah Kerr, Cary Grant, Ginger Rogers, Katherine Hepburn, Jimmy Stewart. The song is sung by Nat King Cole. You don't get better than this. Then we have Willie Nelson singing one of Berlin's beautiful tunes, Blue Skies.
1937 - Red Norvo, nicknamed 'Mr. Swing', was a musician in the 30s, who was one of jazz's early exponents of the vibraphone. He helped establish the xylophone, marimba and then the vibraphone as viable jazz instruments. His trio - actually a quartet - often featured jazz and western swing guitar player Jimmy Wyble. This is the day the trio recorded the Russian Lullaby.
1962 - Bob Dylan made his first appearance at Carnegie Hall tonight, and for details and video go to our archive search engine. Two years later, on the same day, the musical Fiddler on the Roof opened on Broadway, the first of what would be 3, 242 performances. This is a video clip of what has become the most famous songs from the movie version of the play.
1965 - It is 46 years since The Supremes made the studio recording of their global hit, I Hear a Symphony, and this is their live vocal performance, a rare piece of footage, probably from the American TV show, Hullabaloo. For all things Supreme, go to our archive or search engine.
1965 - A very young Who began their brief tour of Scandinavia today, and during the tour Roger Daltrey and Keith Moon argued to such an extent that Daltrey reportedly punched the shit out of moon. Sadly no footage of the punch nor the tour, but what about this 1965 footage of the band on an unnamed TV show - Moon is magnetic.
1966 - This is the year Rolling Stones began to come into their own in terms of songwriting, but also their own style of clothing, clearly opting for the 'mod' fashion of the day. And this is the day they released Have You Seen Your Mother, Baby?
1972 - David Bowie began his very first American tour with the Spiders from Mars, today. This video is an amazing piece of music history featuring not just Bowie, but one of the unheralded rock'n'roll guitar greats, Mick Ronson.
1980 - Notorious American music man David Geffen, formed Geffen records today, and very quickly signed John Lennon, and five years later on the same day we saw the first Farm-Aid concert, which raised $10 million for american farmers. Almost a decade later on the same day, Bruce Springsteen joined Jimmy Cliff onstage and they sang Trapped. The song was recorded by Springsteen for the We Are The World album. This is Jimmy Cliff live on the David Letterman show in the same year.
