September 29, 1967 - WRITTEN by songwriting team Norman Whitfield & Barrett Strong in 1966, I Heard It Through the Grapevine has become one of those landmark songs, & even more so in the history of Motown Records, for whom it was first recorded by Smokey Robinson & the Miracles. Creedence Clearwater Revival released their rock'n'roll version of the song in 1970, and Marvin Gaye released his version in 1967, the song eventually becoming his signature tune. If you'd like to see Marvin's version go to our *MUSICBACKTRACK* archive search engine. In 1967, on this day, Gladys Knight & the Pips recorded their version of the song, and here's a live version of their performance on TV show, Soul Train, sometime in the seventies. Following that is a version from the late Amy Winehouse and Paul Weller, performing the song live on the Jools Holland TV show. Is it my imagination or is Amy just so, so sexy in this video?
1947 - THIS is the day versatile Dizzy Gillespie gave his first Carnegie Hall concert, a full house, and a proclamation on the popularity of jazz. Gillespie is one of the all-time great be-bop jazz men, and was a band leader of high repute, in addition to being a great showman. We have two videos of the man; first up, performing You Beeped When He Should Have Bopped, from1947. Then a song called Salt Peanuts, preceded by this brilliant introduction: "You must have read what Shakespeare said, back in a distant age, all the world's a stage and the men and women in it, merely play it. You are the actors in this fast moving drama, you are the factors in the worlds panorama, the world's a stage and life's a play, so you must be certain at the rise of the curtain, whether you'll stand in the balcony with your cigarette butts, or sit in the orchestra with Dizzy and Salt Peanuts."
1954 - THERE have been three movie versions of the true-to-life story, A Star Is Born; the original in 1937, the Barbra Streisand/Kris Kristofferson 1976 version, and the second version, starring Judy Garland and James Mason. This version had its world premiere 57 years ago today, and for me remains the best of the three versions.
1956 - IN the midst of the new rock'n'roll sweeping the world, and perpetuated, in the main, by his own unprecedented popularity, Elvis Presley released his ballad Love Me Tender, today, with an advance order of 856,327 copies.
1962 - THIS is the day when the Broadway musical, My Fair Lady, closed after a 6-year run on Broadway, and at the time the stage production held the record for being the longest-running musical. Julie Andrews was brilliant in this stage play, and although Audrey Hepburn was fabulous in the movie, I think Ms. Andrews should have played the major role. They have removed any film of Julie Andrews doing the show on Broadway, but here she is recently performing one of the major tunes from My Fair Lady, with Broadway icon, Michael Crawford.
1984 - THIS is the day Prince's single Let's Go Crazy hit #1, coinciding simultaneously with his #1 album & #1 movie. The Beatles are the only other act to have reached that status, with their movie, A Hard Day's Night. A decade to the day after Prince's achievement, the Pointer Sisters received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, and they well deserved it; a bunch of great songs in their repertoire, all of which also happened to be damned sexy.
1996 - CANADIAN/American songstress, Alanis Morissette, has one of the biggest-selling albums of all time, Jagged Little Pill, which has now sold more than 37 million copies, and her total album sales is now in excess of 62 million. She has won 16 Juno Awards, seven prestigious Grammy Awards, and was nominated for two Golden Globe Awards and was then shortlisted for an Academy Award nomination. This is the song that also won video awards, and the song that broke her around the world. This is the day she finished her triumphant world tour, in Houston, Texas.
1947 - THIS is the day versatile Dizzy Gillespie gave his first Carnegie Hall concert, a full house, and a proclamation on the popularity of jazz. Gillespie is one of the all-time great be-bop jazz men, and was a band leader of high repute, in addition to being a great showman. We have two videos of the man; first up, performing You Beeped When He Should Have Bopped, from1947. Then a song called Salt Peanuts, preceded by this brilliant introduction: "You must have read what Shakespeare said, back in a distant age, all the world's a stage and the men and women in it, merely play it. You are the actors in this fast moving drama, you are the factors in the worlds panorama, the world's a stage and life's a play, so you must be certain at the rise of the curtain, whether you'll stand in the balcony with your cigarette butts, or sit in the orchestra with Dizzy and Salt Peanuts."
1954 - THERE have been three movie versions of the true-to-life story, A Star Is Born; the original in 1937, the Barbra Streisand/Kris Kristofferson 1976 version, and the second version, starring Judy Garland and James Mason. This version had its world premiere 57 years ago today, and for me remains the best of the three versions.
1956 - IN the midst of the new rock'n'roll sweeping the world, and perpetuated, in the main, by his own unprecedented popularity, Elvis Presley released his ballad Love Me Tender, today, with an advance order of 856,327 copies.
1962 - THIS is the day when the Broadway musical, My Fair Lady, closed after a 6-year run on Broadway, and at the time the stage production held the record for being the longest-running musical. Julie Andrews was brilliant in this stage play, and although Audrey Hepburn was fabulous in the movie, I think Ms. Andrews should have played the major role. They have removed any film of Julie Andrews doing the show on Broadway, but here she is recently performing one of the major tunes from My Fair Lady, with Broadway icon, Michael Crawford.
1984 - THIS is the day Prince's single Let's Go Crazy hit #1, coinciding simultaneously with his #1 album & #1 movie. The Beatles are the only other act to have reached that status, with their movie, A Hard Day's Night. A decade to the day after Prince's achievement, the Pointer Sisters received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, and they well deserved it; a bunch of great songs in their repertoire, all of which also happened to be damned sexy.
1996 - CANADIAN/American songstress, Alanis Morissette, has one of the biggest-selling albums of all time, Jagged Little Pill, which has now sold more than 37 million copies, and her total album sales is now in excess of 62 million. She has won 16 Juno Awards, seven prestigious Grammy Awards, and was nominated for two Golden Globe Awards and was then shortlisted for an Academy Award nomination. This is the song that also won video awards, and the song that broke her around the world. This is the day she finished her triumphant world tour, in Houston, Texas.
