15 APRIL
In Music History
1986 Nine cops raid Dead Kennedys singer Jello Biafra's apartment and arrest him for distributing "harmful matter" to minors: a poster of genitalia art included in the band's album Frankenchrist. His case becomes a test of the First Amendment and validates his position that the US government systematically oppresses the poor and outspoken (the band is on their own label and has no corporate backing). It drags on for 16 months before ending in a mistrial when the jury can't come to a verdict.
1984 British comedian Tommy Cooper suffers a heart attack and dies on stage during a live performance on the show Live From Her Majesty's.
1983 The Bad Brains' second full-length album, Rock for Light, is released. Produced by The Cars' Ric Ocasek, the album features both new compositions (such as the title track and "How Low Can a Punk Get?"), as well as re-recordings of tunes that originally appeared on the group's debut ("Sailin' On," "Banned in D.C."). Years later, Kurt Cobain would list Rock for Light as one of his all-time favorite records.
1982 Anvil release their sophomore album, Metal on Metal. Produced by Chris Tsangarides, the album spawns the anthemic title track, which instantly becomes an Anvil concert standard.
1982 Billy Joel breaks his left wrist when a car slams into his motorcycle in Long Island. He has surgery on his hand and stays in the hospital for over a month.
1978 Chris Stapleton is born in Lexington, Kentucky. He studies engineering at Vanderbilt University before turning his attention to music, writing songs for other artists and fronting two bands before launching his solo career with his 2015 album Traveller.
1977 The Stranglers' debut full-length album, Rattus Norvegicus, is released. Produced by Martin Rushent, the album spawns one of punk's all-time classics, "Peaches."
1977 Lynyrd Skynyrd are celebrated before the Atlanta Braves home opener in a ceremony to honor the band for their live album One More For The Road, which was recorded at the Fox Theatre in Atlanta.
1974 Lynyrd Skynyrd release their second album, Second Helping, which opens with "Sweet Home Alabama."
1973 Alice Cooper makes the cover of Forbes magazine under the headline, "A New Breed Of Tycoon." The story, which plays into Cooper's Billion Dollar Babies album, is about how rock music has become big business.
1971 Rolling Stone reports that the Illinois Crime Commission has issued a list of "drug-oriented rock records," which includes Jefferson Airplane's "White Rabbit," Procol Harum's "A Whiter Shade of Pale," and "Puff The Magic Dragon" by Peter, Paul and Mary.
1970 Michael Wadleigh's Woodstock, a film chronicle of the famed 1969 counterculture festival, wins the Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature.
1969 Archie Bell of The Drells completes his tour of duty in Vietnam and is discharged from the US Army.
1968 Eleven days after the assassination of her friend Martin Luther King Jr., Aretha Franklin records "Think."
1968 Radiohead guitarist Ed O'Brien is born in Oxford, England.
15 APRIL
Featured Events
2012 A virtual Tupac Shakur performs at the Coachella festival, rapping "Hail Mary" and "2 of Amerikaz Most Wanted" before disappearing in a flash. Often reported as a hologram, the technology used to bring Tupac to life is later revealed to be a system of mirrors, glass and computer animation.
1989 Roy Orbison's posthumous single "You Got It" climbs to #9 in America four months after his death. It's his first Top 10 hit in that country since "(Oh) Pretty Woman" in 1964.
1972 Billy Joel plays a concert at Sigma Sound Studios in Philadelphia which is broadcast by the local radio station WMMR. After the show, the station puts his performance of "Captain Jack" in rotation, and Joel builds a following. This leads to a contract with Columbia Records, which releases Joel's breakthrough album, Piano Man, in 1973.
1972 Roberta Flack's "First Time Ever I Saw Your Face" hits #1 in America, where it stays for six weeks. The song was written by Ewan MacColl in 1957.
1971 The Beatles win their only Oscar, taking Best Original Song Score for their movie Let It Be.
1967 Nancy and Frank Sinatra's "Somethin' Stupid" goes to #1 in America for the first of four weeks. It's the only father-daughter duet ever to top the Hot 100.
1964 After a long day of filming their first movie, Ringo Starr tells the other Beatles it's been "a hard day's night." John Lennon turns the phrase into a song, and the movie title is changed from Beatlemania! to A Hard Day's Night.
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