February 27, 1971 - JANIS JOPLIN started a nine-week run at #1 on the American album chart today, with Pearl, three months after her tragic death. Queen Janis sings an amazing version of one of the album's songs back in 1969, and this video is not viewed very often for some reason. It's a cracking vulnerable performance. We love Janis, so here are three great performances from the legendary performer: From 1969, Little Girl Blue, on the Tom Jones TV show; Cry Baby, live from Toronto in 1969; Summertime, live from Frankfurt, Germany, in 1970. And if you want more info and videos on Janis go to our archives and use the search engine.
1961 - CHUBBY CHECKER consolidated his global popularity status during this year, beginning with a three week run at top of American charts, starting today, with his second #1 dance song, The Pony - a follow up to The Twist. The American singer-songwriter became widely known a year earlier for popularising the twist dance style, with his 1960 hit cover of Hank Ballard's R&B hit The Twist. In September 2008, The Twist topped Billboard's list of the most popular singles to have appeared in the Hot 100 since its debut in 1958. Chuck Berry was recently quoted as saying: "The Twist really ruined my life. I was on my way to becoming a big nightclub performer, and The Twist just wiped it out.. It got so out of proportion. No one ever believes I have talent." Following his initial success, he had a succession of up-tempo dance tracks and produced a series of successful dance-related singles, including The Hucklebuck, The Fly, Dance the Mess Around and Pony Time.
1956 - LITTLE RICHARD released his song, Slippin' and Slidin', today, on indie record label Specialty Records. Writing of the song was credited to Little Richard, Edwin Bocage (Eddie Boe), Al Collins, and James Smith. Eddie Bo first recorded the song in 1956 with the title, I'm Wise. Little Richard covered it in the same year, and changed the title to Slippin' and Slidin'. No videos for this one, but we do have a video from the next year, his huge iconic song, Lucille. In 1983, John Lennon did a brilliant cover version of the song, which became a hit on his Rock'n'Roll album. Here are both songs.
1960 - THE MIRACLES made their first TV appearance on American Bandstand tonight, the first-ever Motown act to perform on the show. The song performed was Shop Around, and featured the magic of a very young Bill 'Smokey' Robinson, the song being the first ever #1 hit record for Tamla Motown. It was also noted for being the first million-selling record for The Miracles and for The Motown Record Corporation, as well as resulting in a 2006 Grammy Hall of Fame induction. The Miracles' original version was ranked #495 on Rolling Stone's list of The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time. The song, written by Robinson and Berry Gordy, depicts a mother giving her now-grown son advice about how to find a woman worthy of being a girlfriend or wife. sadly, no full-tilt video version of this song, but howzabout this Miracles song, later covered by the Beatles.
1964 - CILLA BLACK, the 21-year-old former hairdresser and cloakroom attendant at The Cavern club in Liverpool, was at #1 on Brit singles charts today, with the beautiful song, Anyone Who Had A Heart, written by Burt Bacharach and Hal David. It was Ms. Black's first #1 hit and it repeated that all over the world. Cilla black went on to become a worldwide hit-maker, and later had an extremely successful career on television.
1967 - PINK FLOYD recorded their debut single today, Arnold Layne, a Syd Barrett-penned song. The song was about a transvestite whose primary pastime is stealing women's clothes and undergarments from washing lines. According to Roger Waters, Arnold Layne was actually based on a real person. Waters: "Both my mother and Syd's mother had students as lodgers because there was a girls' college up the road so there were constantly great lines of bras and knickers on our washing lines and Arnold or whoever he was, had bits off our washing lines. Arnold Layne was the first single released by the British psychedelic rock band. Although not originally included on the band's debut album, The Piper at the Gates of Dawn, Arnold Layne is featured on numerous compilation albums of the band. The song's unusual transvestism theme attracted the ire of Radio London, which deemed the song as being too far-removed from 'normal' society for its listeners, before eventually banning it from radio airplay altogether.
1980 - WINNERS at the Grammys for this year, included Song Of The Year - What A Fool Believes by Dobbie Brothers; Album of the Year - Billy Joel's 52nd St; Best New Artist - Rickie Lee Jones, and Best Disco record, I Will Survive by Gloria Gaynor. The lyrics of this song are written from the point of view of a woman, recently dumped, telling her former lover that she can cope without him and does not want anything more to do with him. The song has become something of an anthem of female emancipation, and is still a staple of office parties and karaoke nights. How many times have you sung this song, girls?
1990 - MILLI VANILLI'S Rob Pilatus shared his perspective on life with Time magazine, today, and in the interview he was quoted as saying: "Musically, we're more talented than any Bob Dylan or Paul McCartney. Mick Jagger can't produce a sound. I'm the new Elvis." Pilatus was best known as half of the pop music duo Milli Vanilli. The German-American model, dancer and singer unfortunately served three months in prison for assault, vandalism, and attempted robbery. Two years later Pilatus was found dead at the age of 32 from a suspected alcohol and prescription pill overdose in a Frankfurt hotel room. His death was ruled accidental. Sadly tragic.
1993 - AFTER 14 WEEKS at #1 on the US singles chart, today, I Will Always Love You, gave Whitney Houston the longest ever US chart topping song, taking over from Boyz II Men's hit End Of The Road, and became the second biggest selling single around the world.
1993 - EAST 17 were sitting pretty at #1 on the UK album chart, today, with their debut LP, Walthamstow. Formed in Walthamstow, London, in 1991, the group was named after the postcode for the London borough. The underrated group achieved 18 Top 20 singles and four Top 10 albums, and were one of the UK's most popular boy bands during the early to mid-1990s. The group went on to sell 20 million records worldwide. Their boy band style was unique as it blended rap and pop in songs such as House of Love, Steam and Let It Rain.
1961 - CHUBBY CHECKER consolidated his global popularity status during this year, beginning with a three week run at top of American charts, starting today, with his second #1 dance song, The Pony - a follow up to The Twist. The American singer-songwriter became widely known a year earlier for popularising the twist dance style, with his 1960 hit cover of Hank Ballard's R&B hit The Twist. In September 2008, The Twist topped Billboard's list of the most popular singles to have appeared in the Hot 100 since its debut in 1958. Chuck Berry was recently quoted as saying: "The Twist really ruined my life. I was on my way to becoming a big nightclub performer, and The Twist just wiped it out.. It got so out of proportion. No one ever believes I have talent." Following his initial success, he had a succession of up-tempo dance tracks and produced a series of successful dance-related singles, including The Hucklebuck, The Fly, Dance the Mess Around and Pony Time.
1956 - LITTLE RICHARD released his song, Slippin' and Slidin', today, on indie record label Specialty Records. Writing of the song was credited to Little Richard, Edwin Bocage (Eddie Boe), Al Collins, and James Smith. Eddie Bo first recorded the song in 1956 with the title, I'm Wise. Little Richard covered it in the same year, and changed the title to Slippin' and Slidin'. No videos for this one, but we do have a video from the next year, his huge iconic song, Lucille. In 1983, John Lennon did a brilliant cover version of the song, which became a hit on his Rock'n'Roll album. Here are both songs.
1960 - THE MIRACLES made their first TV appearance on American Bandstand tonight, the first-ever Motown act to perform on the show. The song performed was Shop Around, and featured the magic of a very young Bill 'Smokey' Robinson, the song being the first ever #1 hit record for Tamla Motown. It was also noted for being the first million-selling record for The Miracles and for The Motown Record Corporation, as well as resulting in a 2006 Grammy Hall of Fame induction. The Miracles' original version was ranked #495 on Rolling Stone's list of The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time. The song, written by Robinson and Berry Gordy, depicts a mother giving her now-grown son advice about how to find a woman worthy of being a girlfriend or wife. sadly, no full-tilt video version of this song, but howzabout this Miracles song, later covered by the Beatles.
1964 - CILLA BLACK, the 21-year-old former hairdresser and cloakroom attendant at The Cavern club in Liverpool, was at #1 on Brit singles charts today, with the beautiful song, Anyone Who Had A Heart, written by Burt Bacharach and Hal David. It was Ms. Black's first #1 hit and it repeated that all over the world. Cilla black went on to become a worldwide hit-maker, and later had an extremely successful career on television.
1967 - PINK FLOYD recorded their debut single today, Arnold Layne, a Syd Barrett-penned song. The song was about a transvestite whose primary pastime is stealing women's clothes and undergarments from washing lines. According to Roger Waters, Arnold Layne was actually based on a real person. Waters: "Both my mother and Syd's mother had students as lodgers because there was a girls' college up the road so there were constantly great lines of bras and knickers on our washing lines and Arnold or whoever he was, had bits off our washing lines. Arnold Layne was the first single released by the British psychedelic rock band. Although not originally included on the band's debut album, The Piper at the Gates of Dawn, Arnold Layne is featured on numerous compilation albums of the band. The song's unusual transvestism theme attracted the ire of Radio London, which deemed the song as being too far-removed from 'normal' society for its listeners, before eventually banning it from radio airplay altogether.
1980 - WINNERS at the Grammys for this year, included Song Of The Year - What A Fool Believes by Dobbie Brothers; Album of the Year - Billy Joel's 52nd St; Best New Artist - Rickie Lee Jones, and Best Disco record, I Will Survive by Gloria Gaynor. The lyrics of this song are written from the point of view of a woman, recently dumped, telling her former lover that she can cope without him and does not want anything more to do with him. The song has become something of an anthem of female emancipation, and is still a staple of office parties and karaoke nights. How many times have you sung this song, girls?
1990 - MILLI VANILLI'S Rob Pilatus shared his perspective on life with Time magazine, today, and in the interview he was quoted as saying: "Musically, we're more talented than any Bob Dylan or Paul McCartney. Mick Jagger can't produce a sound. I'm the new Elvis." Pilatus was best known as half of the pop music duo Milli Vanilli. The German-American model, dancer and singer unfortunately served three months in prison for assault, vandalism, and attempted robbery. Two years later Pilatus was found dead at the age of 32 from a suspected alcohol and prescription pill overdose in a Frankfurt hotel room. His death was ruled accidental. Sadly tragic.
1993 - AFTER 14 WEEKS at #1 on the US singles chart, today, I Will Always Love You, gave Whitney Houston the longest ever US chart topping song, taking over from Boyz II Men's hit End Of The Road, and became the second biggest selling single around the world.
1993 - EAST 17 were sitting pretty at #1 on the UK album chart, today, with their debut LP, Walthamstow. Formed in Walthamstow, London, in 1991, the group was named after the postcode for the London borough. The underrated group achieved 18 Top 20 singles and four Top 10 albums, and were one of the UK's most popular boy bands during the early to mid-1990s. The group went on to sell 20 million records worldwide. Their boy band style was unique as it blended rap and pop in songs such as House of Love, Steam and Let It Rain.
