History Highlight:
On this day in 1994, Aaliyah released her debut studio album, Age Ain’t Nothing But a Number. Recorded in Chicago in 1993 and early 1994, the record fuses her soul-filled R&B and hip-hop vocal lines and the “new jack swing” production of the era. It shows Aaliyah’s incredible range as a performer, from the tender interpretation of the Isley Brothers’ “At Your Best (You Are Love)” to the upbeat party anthem “Back & Forth.” Both songs were top 10 singles on the Billboard Hot 100, and the album has sold more than six million copies worldwide. It was the first of three studio albums she released during a promising career cut tragically short when she died in a plane crash in 2001.
Also, Today In:
1961 - Patsy Cline was seriously injured in a car accident. During her two-month hospital stay, her song "I Fall to Pieces" gave the singer her first Country No. 1 and also became a huge country-pop crossover hit. Cline passed away in 1963 when her flight crashed in heavy weather. Millions of her records have sold since, and she became the first female solo artist inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame in 1973, ten years after her death.
1965 - Along with a string quartet, Paul McCartney recorded what would turn out to be one of the most recorded songs of all time - "Yesterday."
1966 - Deeming its "butcher cover" in poor taste, Capitol Records recalls the new Beatles album, Yesterday and Today, which is scheduled for release the next day. The shot of the group wearing butcher uniforms amid dismembered doll parts, raw pork and sausage links is meant to show how they are being torn apart by their celebrity. About 60,000 advance copies are already sent to stores and media outlets, when backlash begins, and it becomes clear that retailers won't put the album on shelves. A furious effort begins to replace the cover and when the album is finally released on June 20, it is with an innocuous shot of the group posed around a trunk. In 2016, a copy of the album with the original cover sells for $125,000.
1970 - Eric Clapton's new band was introduced as "Derek and the Dominos" when they took the stage at the Lyceum in London. They told the promoter they were "The Dynamics," but he convinced them to add the "Derek," which was a nickname for Clapton. His mangled name interpretation stuck.
1970 - The Grateful Dead release their fourth album, Workingman's Dead. With more compact songs like "Uncle John's Band" and "Casey Jones," it reaches a wider audience than their previous albums.
1980 - Peter Gabriel reached number one on the U.K. Album Chart for the first time with his third self-titled album which spent two weeks on top.
1974 - David Bowie's Diamond Dogs tour begins in Montreal. As part of the elaborate stage show, a giant diamond opens up to reveal Bowie.
1980 - Billy Joel's Glass Houses is the #1 album in America for the first of six consecutive weeks.
1989 - Carole King gets a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
1994 - Noted film composer Henry Mancini dies of pancreatic cancer at age 70. During his lengthy career, Mancini scored more than 100 films, writing such memorable selections as “Theme from Romeo and Juliet,” “Moon River” (Breakfast at Tiffany’s), and “Theme from the Pink Panther.”
1995 - Police in Columbus, OH received 20 noise complaints from a Ted Nugent concert. But Nugent didn't turn down the volume, claiming he was within the legal noise limits.
1995 - Michael Jackson and Lisa Marie Presley were interviewed together on ABC, insisting their marriage was not fake. They got divorced in January 1996.
1995 - Irish blues rocker Rory Gallagher dies of a staphylococcal infection following a liver transplant at age 47.
1996 - Beatles producer George Martin is knighted by Queen Elizabeth II.
1997 - Puff Daddy's "I'll Be Missing You," a tribute to The Notorious B.I.G., hit No. 1 in America, where it stayed for 11 weeks, dominating the summer of 1997.
2002 - Mick Jagger became a Sir when he was knighted in the Queen's Birthday Honors.
2003 - "Bring Me To Life," the debut single from Evanescence, hits #1 in the UK and stays for four weeks. The song peaks at #5 in America.
2003 - Gerry Marsden of Gerry and the Pacemakers is awarded a Member of the British Empire medal by Queen Elizabeth in London.
2004 - Beastie Boys released their sixth studio album, To the 5 Boroughs.
2006 - Rufus Wainwright, son of folk singer Loudon Wainwright III, recreates the whole of Judy Garland's legendary 1961 Carnegie Hall concert at the famous institution in order to mark the show's 35th anniversary.
2008 - Pearl Jam and My Morning Jacket bond, a tardy Kanye West riles the crowd and calls organizers "squid brains," and MGMT dance like hippies at Bonnaroo 2008.
2016 - Irish guitarist Henry McCullough died after never fully recovering from a severe heart attack he had suffered four years earlier. He recorded with Paul McCartney and Wings and was featured on "Live and Let Die" and "My Love", the solo which he made up on the spot in front of a live orchestra. He was also a member of Spooky Tooth and The Grease Band.
2017 - The National Music Publishers Association gave Yoko Ono the Centennial Award for song of the century and added her name to the credits of the award-winning song, "Imagine." John Lennon took the sole credit, but later admitted he got the idea from Yoko's book Grapefruit, where she wrote things like, "Imagine 1000 suns in the sky at the same time."
2019 - Noah Kahan released his debut album, Busyhead.
2020 - BTS draw about 750,000 viewers (in 107 countries) to their Bang Bang Con livestream concert, earning an estimated $20 million in ticket sales, far more than what a traditional concert could earn. It proves that livestream shows, which have mostly relied on donations, can be immensely profitable as ticketed events.
Birthdays:
Burl Ives was born today in 1909.
Cy Coleman was born today in 1929.
Motown saxophone great Junior Walker was born on this day in 1931.
Renaldo “Obie” Benson, founding member of the Four Tops, was born today in 1936.
The Zombies founder Rod Argent is 79.
Barry “The Fish” Melton, co-founder of Country Joe and the Fish, is 77.
Brian Eno collaborator Paul Rudolph is 77.
Jim Lea of Slade is 75.
Alan White, drummer for Yes, was born on this day in 1949.
Nick Van Eede, frontman for Cutting Crew, is 66.
Marcus Miller — bassist for Michael Jackson, Beyoncé, Aretha Franklin, Elton John, Miles Davis, Herbie Hanco*ck, Luther Vandross, Wayne Shorter, and many others — is 65.
George Alan O'Dowd, better-known as Boy George, is 63 today. Lead singer of the Grammy and Brit Award-winning Culture Club, the band had mega-hits such as "Do You Really Want to Hurt Me", "Time (Clock of the Heart)" and "Karma Chameleon". These days George mostly splits his time between songwriting, DJing, writing books, designing clothes and photography, but his soulful voice and bold appearance put him in history among the likes of David Bowie and Iggy Pop.
Joshua Radin is 50.
Siobhán Donaghy of Sugababes is 40.
Gunna is 31.
Highlights for Today in Music History are gathered from This Day in Music, Paul Shaffer's Day in Rock, Song Facts and Wikipedia.
