February 9, 1999 - DAVE GROHL, his Roswell Records label, EMI Entertainment World and EMI Virgin Songs filed a suit against Miramax in California, today, accusing them with unauthorized use of the Foo Fighters' song Big Me in trailers for the film Rounders. And here's the song from good old Dave, who, by the way, didn't waste too much time getting into it after his Nirvana leader blew his brains out. I think the Nirvana rub-off has been a big contributor to the popularity of Grohl and his Foo Fighters.
1893 - GIUSEPPE VERDI'S opera, Falstaff, was his final opera, but also, arguably, It turned out to be his best ever. This was the day, 119 years ago, that the opera had its premiere performance in Milan, Italy. The following movie excerpt is of the famous finale in Falstaff, with the conductor being Solti. Wish I could give you more details of the movie, dear reader, but none available.
1962 - NEIL SEDAKA is the American pop singer, pianist, and songwriter whose career has spanned more than 50 years. During that time he has wrote many songs for himself and other acts, often working with lyricists Howard Greenfield and Phil Cody. He did this as a 'house' song writer in the famous song writing 'factory' of New York's Brill Building. Although the song Oh Carol was his first big hit, it was this day in 1962 that Sedaka recorded what turned out to be one of his signature tunes, Breaking Up is Hard to Do. A classic song on a classic Miami TV show, Saturday Hop, with legendary American DJ/host, Rick Shaw.
1963 - PAUL & PAULA started a three-week run at #1 on the US singles charts with Hey Paula, 49 years ago today, before doing the same thing in countries all over the world. Paul & Paula were really Ray Hildebrand and Jill Jackson, two Texans who answered the call of a local DJ for listeners to come in to the radio station and record a song to help raise funds for the American Cancer Society. The smash hit sold more than two million copies around the world.
1966 - LIZA MINNELLI is the daughter of legendary iconic performer, Judy Garland, and when she was aged 20 years old, Ms. M brought her night club act to New York City. She opened at the Persian Room of the Plaza Hotel. Watch this interview from two years earlier, aged just 18, defending her mother...at the end she dances while her mother sings. Love Liza with a Z, love her mother, too. Two consummate performers. How cool and calm is this 18yo?
1972 - PAUL MCCARTNEY made an audacious move 40 years ago tonight, when he performed at Nottingham University in England, with a brand new band, Wings. Audacious, because he had personally made legal efforts to disband the Beatles a couple of years earlier, and formed Wings. The new band toured the country doing smallish gigs, most of which were not pre-publicised as to having a former Beatle in its ranks. This following song had been recorded by Wings in the same year, and this is a short, live version from McCartney and wife Linda.
1975 - CHER'S TV show began 37 years ago to the very day, and for a bit of fun, folks, here she is with her two special guests that night, Elton John and Bette Midler, the formidable trio singing a couple of songs you should know well. Bette Midler is just brilliant.
1981 - BILL HALEY, the American rock'n'roll singer, was found dead, fully clothed, on his bed at his home in Harlington, Texas, today, from a heart attack. Haley had sold more than 60 million records during his career, his biggest selling song being the worldwide hit, Rock Around The Clock. Following the song's inclusion in the teen angst movie, Blackboard Jungle, it became 'the first rock'n'roll hit record, and Haley the first white rock'n'roll star. Haley was blinded in his left eye as a child due to a botched operation and later adopted his distinctive spit-curl hairstyle to distract attention from his blind eye. If you want to see Rock Around The Clock, go to this blog's archives. In the meantime, here is another of his hits.
2010 - SADE'S album, Soldier Of Love, was released in around the world today. Here's a live version of the song on morning breakfast television show, The Today Show, and following that from 1984, the song that started it all for the gorgeous Sade…Smooth Operator…and isn't she just that.
1893 - GIUSEPPE VERDI'S opera, Falstaff, was his final opera, but also, arguably, It turned out to be his best ever. This was the day, 119 years ago, that the opera had its premiere performance in Milan, Italy. The following movie excerpt is of the famous finale in Falstaff, with the conductor being Solti. Wish I could give you more details of the movie, dear reader, but none available.
1962 - NEIL SEDAKA is the American pop singer, pianist, and songwriter whose career has spanned more than 50 years. During that time he has wrote many songs for himself and other acts, often working with lyricists Howard Greenfield and Phil Cody. He did this as a 'house' song writer in the famous song writing 'factory' of New York's Brill Building. Although the song Oh Carol was his first big hit, it was this day in 1962 that Sedaka recorded what turned out to be one of his signature tunes, Breaking Up is Hard to Do. A classic song on a classic Miami TV show, Saturday Hop, with legendary American DJ/host, Rick Shaw.
1963 - PAUL & PAULA started a three-week run at #1 on the US singles charts with Hey Paula, 49 years ago today, before doing the same thing in countries all over the world. Paul & Paula were really Ray Hildebrand and Jill Jackson, two Texans who answered the call of a local DJ for listeners to come in to the radio station and record a song to help raise funds for the American Cancer Society. The smash hit sold more than two million copies around the world.
1966 - LIZA MINNELLI is the daughter of legendary iconic performer, Judy Garland, and when she was aged 20 years old, Ms. M brought her night club act to New York City. She opened at the Persian Room of the Plaza Hotel. Watch this interview from two years earlier, aged just 18, defending her mother...at the end she dances while her mother sings. Love Liza with a Z, love her mother, too. Two consummate performers. How cool and calm is this 18yo?
1972 - PAUL MCCARTNEY made an audacious move 40 years ago tonight, when he performed at Nottingham University in England, with a brand new band, Wings. Audacious, because he had personally made legal efforts to disband the Beatles a couple of years earlier, and formed Wings. The new band toured the country doing smallish gigs, most of which were not pre-publicised as to having a former Beatle in its ranks. This following song had been recorded by Wings in the same year, and this is a short, live version from McCartney and wife Linda.
1975 - CHER'S TV show began 37 years ago to the very day, and for a bit of fun, folks, here she is with her two special guests that night, Elton John and Bette Midler, the formidable trio singing a couple of songs you should know well. Bette Midler is just brilliant.
1981 - BILL HALEY, the American rock'n'roll singer, was found dead, fully clothed, on his bed at his home in Harlington, Texas, today, from a heart attack. Haley had sold more than 60 million records during his career, his biggest selling song being the worldwide hit, Rock Around The Clock. Following the song's inclusion in the teen angst movie, Blackboard Jungle, it became 'the first rock'n'roll hit record, and Haley the first white rock'n'roll star. Haley was blinded in his left eye as a child due to a botched operation and later adopted his distinctive spit-curl hairstyle to distract attention from his blind eye. If you want to see Rock Around The Clock, go to this blog's archives. In the meantime, here is another of his hits.
2010 - SADE'S album, Soldier Of Love, was released in around the world today. Here's a live version of the song on morning breakfast television show, The Today Show, and following that from 1984, the song that started it all for the gorgeous Sade…Smooth Operator…and isn't she just that.
