December 5, 1791 - COMPOSER Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart died in Vienna, Austria, at the age of 35, today. Mozart composed about 600 musical works, many acknowledged as pinnacles of symphonic, concertante, chamber, piano, operatic, and choral music. He is among the most enduringly popular of all classical composers, and to remember his life 220 years after the day of his death, here are a couple of excerpts from the homage movie, Armadeus.
1956 - ALAN Freed's Rock Rock Rock film with Connie Francis singing for Tuesday Weld was released today, taking rock'n'roll music into suburban theatres around the world. The movie was the first real rock'n'roll movie from Freed, who, at the start, was mainly instrumental in bringing rock'n'roll music to mainstream teens, no matter what colour, creed or belief. Following is a rarely seen clip from the movie, most of the rest of the movie clips being restricted for embedding.
1968 - ROLLING Stones’ new album Beggar’s Banquet, was celebrated at a party in London, 43 days ago, the day of its release. A food fight with custard pies was the highlight of the event that went on without an ill Keith Richards. The album is the seventh studio album by the Rolling Stones, marking a return to the band's R&B roots, and generally seen as more primal than the obvious psychedelia of Their Satanic Majesties Request effort. Beggars Banquet was also Brian Jones' last full effort with the Stones. Here's footage of the custard pie fight, followed by a couple of songs from their famous Hyde Park tribute concert to Brian Jones in 1969 - the final song, Stray cat Blues, from the Beggar's album.
1968 - GRAHAM Nash quit Brit pop group the Hollies today, and announced the formation of Crosby, Stills and Nash three days later. Nash was by then feeling something of a prisoner of his early pop success, as were other pop group members. It was the dawn of socially aware rock music. He felt imprisoned within The Hollies pop group identity too, when he wanted to write more personalised songs of a reflective nature not necessarily utilising vocal harmonies. Furthermore, he disagreed with the group's decision to make their next album entirely comprising of Bob Dylan songs. He relocated to Los Angeles, where he joined forces with former Buffalo Springfield guitarist Stephen Stills and ex-Byrds singer David Crosby to form one of the first supergroups, Crosby, Stills & Nash. He told Disc magazine, "I can't take touring any more. I just want to sit at home and write songs." This was the trio's first international hit record.
1976 - MUSIC weekly NME reviewed the Sex Pistols debut single Anarchy In The UK, today, saying: "Johnny Rotten sings flat, the song is laughably naive, and the overall feeling is of a third-rate Who imitation." As soon as the band began its explosion, NME changed its mind and started praising the band.
1981 - JULIO Iglesias was at #1 in the UK singles charts 30 years ago today, with the 1935 Cole Porter classic, Begin The Beguine. With Spanish lyrics, it was the singer's only UK chart topper. Iglesias has sold over way more than 300 million records worldwide in 14 languages and has released 77 albums. According to Sony Music Entertainment, he is one of the top 10 best selling music artists in history.
1987 - JESUS And Mary Chain were banned from appearing on a US music TV show after complaints of blasphemy when the group's name was flashed across the screen. The CBS show asked the band to be called JANC but the group did not relent. Not so in the UK where the band made this appearance on Top Of The Pops, in the same year.
1992 - WHITNEY Houston started a ten-week run on top of world charts, with the Dolly Parton song, I Will Always Love You. It was the longest ever run at #1 for a female artist, and here is the original, by the person who wrote it, Dolly Parton.
1956 - ALAN Freed's Rock Rock Rock film with Connie Francis singing for Tuesday Weld was released today, taking rock'n'roll music into suburban theatres around the world. The movie was the first real rock'n'roll movie from Freed, who, at the start, was mainly instrumental in bringing rock'n'roll music to mainstream teens, no matter what colour, creed or belief. Following is a rarely seen clip from the movie, most of the rest of the movie clips being restricted for embedding.
1968 - ROLLING Stones’ new album Beggar’s Banquet, was celebrated at a party in London, 43 days ago, the day of its release. A food fight with custard pies was the highlight of the event that went on without an ill Keith Richards. The album is the seventh studio album by the Rolling Stones, marking a return to the band's R&B roots, and generally seen as more primal than the obvious psychedelia of Their Satanic Majesties Request effort. Beggars Banquet was also Brian Jones' last full effort with the Stones. Here's footage of the custard pie fight, followed by a couple of songs from their famous Hyde Park tribute concert to Brian Jones in 1969 - the final song, Stray cat Blues, from the Beggar's album.
1968 - GRAHAM Nash quit Brit pop group the Hollies today, and announced the formation of Crosby, Stills and Nash three days later. Nash was by then feeling something of a prisoner of his early pop success, as were other pop group members. It was the dawn of socially aware rock music. He felt imprisoned within The Hollies pop group identity too, when he wanted to write more personalised songs of a reflective nature not necessarily utilising vocal harmonies. Furthermore, he disagreed with the group's decision to make their next album entirely comprising of Bob Dylan songs. He relocated to Los Angeles, where he joined forces with former Buffalo Springfield guitarist Stephen Stills and ex-Byrds singer David Crosby to form one of the first supergroups, Crosby, Stills & Nash. He told Disc magazine, "I can't take touring any more. I just want to sit at home and write songs." This was the trio's first international hit record.
1976 - MUSIC weekly NME reviewed the Sex Pistols debut single Anarchy In The UK, today, saying: "Johnny Rotten sings flat, the song is laughably naive, and the overall feeling is of a third-rate Who imitation." As soon as the band began its explosion, NME changed its mind and started praising the band.
1981 - JULIO Iglesias was at #1 in the UK singles charts 30 years ago today, with the 1935 Cole Porter classic, Begin The Beguine. With Spanish lyrics, it was the singer's only UK chart topper. Iglesias has sold over way more than 300 million records worldwide in 14 languages and has released 77 albums. According to Sony Music Entertainment, he is one of the top 10 best selling music artists in history.
1987 - JESUS And Mary Chain were banned from appearing on a US music TV show after complaints of blasphemy when the group's name was flashed across the screen. The CBS show asked the band to be called JANC but the group did not relent. Not so in the UK where the band made this appearance on Top Of The Pops, in the same year.
1992 - WHITNEY Houston started a ten-week run on top of world charts, with the Dolly Parton song, I Will Always Love You. It was the longest ever run at #1 for a female artist, and here is the original, by the person who wrote it, Dolly Parton.
