March 14, 1992 - FARM AID started as a benefit concert in 1985, in Champaign, Illinois, held to raise money for family farmers in the United States. The concert was organized by Willie Nelson, John Mellencamp and Neil Young, spurred on by Bob Dylan's comments at Live Aid earlier in that year. (Dylan said, "I hope that some of the money...maybe they can just take a little bit of it, maybe...one or two million, maybe...and use it, say, to pay the mortgages on some of the farms and, the farmers here, owe to the banks...."). Nelson and Mellencamp then brought family farmers before Congress to testify about the state of family farming in America. Congress subsequently passed the Agricultural Credit Act of 1987 to help save family farms from foreclosure. Today, Farm Aid is an organisation that works to increase awareness of the importance of family farms, and puts on an annual concert of country, blues and rock music with a variety of stars. The board of directors now includes Nelson, Mellencamp, Neil Young, and Dave Matthews. Young's speeches about the environment are a highlight of the annual shows. On this day 20 years ago, Farm Aid was attended by about 40,000 people in Texas Stadium, Irving, Texas. This is Neil Young performing live, Heart Of Gold, at the debut event in 1985
1804 - JOHANN STRAUSS was born in Vienna 208 years ago. A romantic composer famous for his waltzes, and for popularizing them alongside Josef Lanner, thereby setting the foundations for his sons to carry on his musical dynasty, Strauss's most famous piece is probably the Radetzky March (named after Joseph Radetzky von Radetz). His most famous waltz, though, is probably the Lorelei Rheinklänge. Here for you today, dear reader, is the former, which was the last piece at the New Year's Concert Vienna 1987, with Herbert Von Karajan conducting the Vienna Philharmonic AND THE AUDIENCE.
1956 - IT'S 1956 and rock'n'roll music started spreading around the world, and the very first rock'n'roll movie hit theatres with its worldwide premiere in Washington, DC, tonight. Check out this 56-year-old trailer for the movie - it's so funny now looking back to see what was considered as hip. The movie is ROCK AROUND THE CLOCK, starring Johnny Johnston, Lisa Gaye, Alan Freed, Bill Haley and the Comets, The Platters, Freddie Bell and the Bell Boys. Producer Sam Katzman - notoriously known for his low budget B grade movies, horror films and serials, was quick to jump on the rock 'n roll craze with this little quickie that featured a cast of twenty and thirty-somethings playing teens in a paper-thin plot wrapped around music by Bill Haley and the Comets and other acts. It was a huge success and led to the sequel, DON'T KNOCK THE ROCK later the same year. Katzman remade both films, not quite word-for-word, when the Twist craze swept the nation as TWIST AROUND THE CLOCK in 196, and DON'T KNOCK THE TWIST, both starring Chubby Checker. See you later, alligator!
1958 - MIDDLE-OF-THE ROAD music was ever present as rock'n'roll swept the world, as indeed is the case in any era of music, including today. There were many exponents of MOR music as it later became known, and one of the best was Perry Como. In fact, this #1 hit song, Catch A Falling Star was the very first certified gold single record. Here it is, a very special arrangement, live, lifted from a TV show from way back then.
1965 - PETULA CLARK was one of the many female singers who held her own during the sixties, her voice and talent taking her through the change that was beginning to happen to music in the sixties. It was 47 years ago today that Pet Clark made her American TV debut on CBS' Ed Sullivan Show. And this is it.
1980 - QUINCY JONES, the great musician and producer, received a deserved star on the Hollywood Walk Of Fame today for his amazing musical career. As a conductor, record producer, musical arranger, film composer, television producer, and trumpeter his career now spans five decades in the entertainment industry and a record 79 Grammy Award nominations, 27 Grammys, including a Grammy Legend Award in 1991. He is particularly recognized as the producer of the album Thriller, by pop icon Michael Jackson, which has sold between 60-110 million copies worldwide - depending on whom one talks with - and as the producer and conductor of the charity song We Are the World. In 1968, Jones and his songwriting partner Bob Russell became the first African Americans to be nominated for an Academy Award for Best Original Song. That same year, he became the first African American to be nominated twice within the same year when he was nominated for Best Original Score for his work on the music of the 1967 film In Cold Blood. In 1971, Jones would receive the honor of becoming the first African American to be named musical director/conductor of the Academy Awards ceremony. He was the first African American to win the Academy's Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award, in 1995. He is tied with sound designer Willie D. Burton as the most Oscar-nominated African American, each of them having seven nominations. At the 2008 BET Awards, Quincy Jones was presented with the Humanitarian Award. He was played by Larenz Tate in the 2004 biopic about Ray Charles, Ray. In anybody's language, Jones is at the top of his profession. Here he is, firstly as a conductor in 1960, then as a co-performer, nine years after his Hollywood Walk of Fame star, with Secret Garden.
1992 - MADNESS started a three week run at # on the UK album charts, today with their third compilation LP, Divine Madness, a collection of their major hits. Madness are a British pop/ska band from Camden Town, London, that formed in 1976. The fun band continued to perform with their most recognised line-up of seven members, although their line-up has varied slightly over the years. They were one of the most prominent bands of the late-1970s during the 2-Tone ska revival. This is their first hit, On Step Beyond
1995 - TUPAC SHAKUR remains an enigmatic music star, his career cut short when he was murderd in 1996. was an American rapper and actor. Shakur has sold over 75 million albums worldwide as of 2007, making him one of the best-selling music artists in the world. Rolling Stone Magazine named him the 86th Greatest Artist of All Time. He was also an actor. The themes of most of Tupac's songs are the violence and hardship in inner cities, racism, social problems, and conflicts with other rappers during the East Coast–West Coast hip hop rivalry. Shakur began his career as a roadie, backup dancer, and MC for the alternative hip hop group Digital Underground. With the release of Me Against the World today, the rapper in jail, Tupac Shakur became the first male solo artist to have a #1 album on the Billboard chart while in prison.
2004 - DJ CASPER went to the top of the charts today with his simple dance song, Cha Cha Slide. DJ Casper developed the Cha Cha Slide in 1996 for Bally Total Fitness and it became a hit with gym members, and went on to become mainstream hit.
1804 - JOHANN STRAUSS was born in Vienna 208 years ago. A romantic composer famous for his waltzes, and for popularizing them alongside Josef Lanner, thereby setting the foundations for his sons to carry on his musical dynasty, Strauss's most famous piece is probably the Radetzky March (named after Joseph Radetzky von Radetz). His most famous waltz, though, is probably the Lorelei Rheinklänge. Here for you today, dear reader, is the former, which was the last piece at the New Year's Concert Vienna 1987, with Herbert Von Karajan conducting the Vienna Philharmonic AND THE AUDIENCE.
1956 - IT'S 1956 and rock'n'roll music started spreading around the world, and the very first rock'n'roll movie hit theatres with its worldwide premiere in Washington, DC, tonight. Check out this 56-year-old trailer for the movie - it's so funny now looking back to see what was considered as hip. The movie is ROCK AROUND THE CLOCK, starring Johnny Johnston, Lisa Gaye, Alan Freed, Bill Haley and the Comets, The Platters, Freddie Bell and the Bell Boys. Producer Sam Katzman - notoriously known for his low budget B grade movies, horror films and serials, was quick to jump on the rock 'n roll craze with this little quickie that featured a cast of twenty and thirty-somethings playing teens in a paper-thin plot wrapped around music by Bill Haley and the Comets and other acts. It was a huge success and led to the sequel, DON'T KNOCK THE ROCK later the same year. Katzman remade both films, not quite word-for-word, when the Twist craze swept the nation as TWIST AROUND THE CLOCK in 196, and DON'T KNOCK THE TWIST, both starring Chubby Checker. See you later, alligator!
1958 - MIDDLE-OF-THE ROAD music was ever present as rock'n'roll swept the world, as indeed is the case in any era of music, including today. There were many exponents of MOR music as it later became known, and one of the best was Perry Como. In fact, this #1 hit song, Catch A Falling Star was the very first certified gold single record. Here it is, a very special arrangement, live, lifted from a TV show from way back then.
1965 - PETULA CLARK was one of the many female singers who held her own during the sixties, her voice and talent taking her through the change that was beginning to happen to music in the sixties. It was 47 years ago today that Pet Clark made her American TV debut on CBS' Ed Sullivan Show. And this is it.
1980 - QUINCY JONES, the great musician and producer, received a deserved star on the Hollywood Walk Of Fame today for his amazing musical career. As a conductor, record producer, musical arranger, film composer, television producer, and trumpeter his career now spans five decades in the entertainment industry and a record 79 Grammy Award nominations, 27 Grammys, including a Grammy Legend Award in 1991. He is particularly recognized as the producer of the album Thriller, by pop icon Michael Jackson, which has sold between 60-110 million copies worldwide - depending on whom one talks with - and as the producer and conductor of the charity song We Are the World. In 1968, Jones and his songwriting partner Bob Russell became the first African Americans to be nominated for an Academy Award for Best Original Song. That same year, he became the first African American to be nominated twice within the same year when he was nominated for Best Original Score for his work on the music of the 1967 film In Cold Blood. In 1971, Jones would receive the honor of becoming the first African American to be named musical director/conductor of the Academy Awards ceremony. He was the first African American to win the Academy's Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award, in 1995. He is tied with sound designer Willie D. Burton as the most Oscar-nominated African American, each of them having seven nominations. At the 2008 BET Awards, Quincy Jones was presented with the Humanitarian Award. He was played by Larenz Tate in the 2004 biopic about Ray Charles, Ray. In anybody's language, Jones is at the top of his profession. Here he is, firstly as a conductor in 1960, then as a co-performer, nine years after his Hollywood Walk of Fame star, with Secret Garden.
1992 - MADNESS started a three week run at # on the UK album charts, today with their third compilation LP, Divine Madness, a collection of their major hits. Madness are a British pop/ska band from Camden Town, London, that formed in 1976. The fun band continued to perform with their most recognised line-up of seven members, although their line-up has varied slightly over the years. They were one of the most prominent bands of the late-1970s during the 2-Tone ska revival. This is their first hit, On Step Beyond
1995 - TUPAC SHAKUR remains an enigmatic music star, his career cut short when he was murderd in 1996. was an American rapper and actor. Shakur has sold over 75 million albums worldwide as of 2007, making him one of the best-selling music artists in the world. Rolling Stone Magazine named him the 86th Greatest Artist of All Time. He was also an actor. The themes of most of Tupac's songs are the violence and hardship in inner cities, racism, social problems, and conflicts with other rappers during the East Coast–West Coast hip hop rivalry. Shakur began his career as a roadie, backup dancer, and MC for the alternative hip hop group Digital Underground. With the release of Me Against the World today, the rapper in jail, Tupac Shakur became the first male solo artist to have a #1 album on the Billboard chart while in prison.
2004 - DJ CASPER went to the top of the charts today with his simple dance song, Cha Cha Slide. DJ Casper developed the Cha Cha Slide in 1996 for Bally Total Fitness and it became a hit with gym members, and went on to become mainstream hit.
