16 APRIL
Featured Events
2007 Ornette Coleman wins the Pulitzer Prize for music for his 2006 album, Sound Grammar, the first jazz work to receive the honor.
1996 Kiss perform at the Grammys in full makeup and glorious costumes. It's just the second time since 1980 (following their 1995 MTV Unplugged taping) that all four original members have been on stage together.
1991 The Temple of the Dog album is released. The one-off project is a tribute to Andrew Wood, the Mother Love Bone lead singer who died in 1990. Temple of the Dog is comprised of Soundgarden members Chris Cornell and Matt Cameron, along with Stone Gossard, Jeff Ament, Mike McCready, and Eddie Vedder of Pearl Jam.More
1990 The Nelson Mandela: An International Tribute for a Free South Africa concert is held in Wembley Stadium, London, to celebrate the release of Mandela, who had been imprisoned since 1962. Neil Young, Peter Gabriel, Lou Reed, Tracy Chapman, Jackson Browne and Bonnie Raitt all perform.More
1974 Queen make their US live debut at Regis College in Denver, Colorado, supporting Mott the Hoople. Their trek ends early when Brian May develops hepatitis a month later.
1971 The Rolling Stones issue "Brown Sugar," the first release on their own label, Rolling Stones Records.
1964 Needing one more song for his album, Dean Martin records "Everybody Loves Somebody," which his friend Frank Sinatra recorded in 1948 and several other singers tried in the '50s. Martin's version is the first to hit, and it hits big, knocking The Beatles off the top spot in August.
1955 Kool Herc is born in Kingston, Jamaica. Born Clive Campbell, his stage name is based on "Hercules," a nickname he earns for his strength. When he is 12, his family moves to the Bronx, where Herc becomes a DJ, throwing dance parties where MCs talk over extended breakbeats he creates with two turntables, one of the most important developments in hip-hop.
16 APRIL
In Music History
2018 Kendrick Lamar's album DAMN. wins the Pulitzer Prize for music, making him the first rapper to win the award, which traditionally goes to classical composers or jazz musicians.
2010 Shakira appears on Wizards of Waverly Place in the episode "Dude Looks Like Shakira."
2010 At the Showbox in Seattle, Washington, Soundgarden play their first show in 13 years.
2008 Barbra Streisand donates $5 million to the Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles for a women's heart education and research program.
2003 Luther Vandross suffers a stroke that leaves him confined to a wheelchair. The singer, whose album Dance With My Father is released in June and goes to #1 in America, dies two years later.
2003 Jerry Lee Lewis files for divorce from his sixth wife, Kerrie McCarver, who was once the president of his fan club.
1999 Skip Spence of Jefferson Airplane and Moby Grape dies of lung cancer two days before his 53rd birthday.
1996 Judy Collins marries her second husband, designer Louis Nelson.
1995 Gabrielle gives birth to her son Jordan. Eight months later, Jordan's father murders his stepfather and is sentenced to life in prison.
1995 Bob Seger has his second child: a daughter named Samantha Char.
1994 Pearl Jam pay tribute to Kurt Cobain, who was found dead a week earlier, on Saturday Night Live with a performance of "Daughter" that ends with lead singer Eddie Vedder opening up his jacket to reveal a "K" on his T-shirt.
1994 Harry Connick, Jr. marries Victoria's Secret model Jill Goodacre in New Orleans.
1993 Billy Burnette leaves Fleetwood Mac to pursue a country music career.
1993 Chance the Rapper is born Chancelor Bennett in Chicago. He upsets the industry apple cart by making a huge impact while remaining independent, earning most of his revenue early on through live shows and sponsorships.
1992 Nirvana appear on the cover of Rolling Stone with Kurt Cobain wearing a T-shirt that reads, "Corporate Magazines Still Suck."
Woody Guthrie Begins The Asch Recordings
1944On shore leave from the Merchant Marines, Woody Guthrie arrives at Folkway Records' studios in New York City, where he starts recording with the label's founder, Moses Asch, in what becomes known as the "Asch recordings." Among the songs recorded during these sessions is "This Land Is Your Land," which becomes an iconic populist protest anthem, covered by countless artists including Pete Seeger and Bruce Springsteen.
Guthrie wrote the song in February 1940, not long after he left his native Oklahoma for New York. The tune was inspired by "When the World's on Fire" by the Carter Family, a group widely considered to be founders of country and western music. The lyrics were inspired by the world around Guthrie. As a young man in Oklahoma in the 1930s, he had first-hand knowledge of the impact of the Dust Bowl. Largely as an escape from a bad marriage, Guthrie rode the rails and hitchhiked across the United States, where he saw the effect of the Great Depression, all the while growing irritated at the incessant radio play of Irving Berlin's patriotic standard, "God Bless America." As a response to "God Bless America," Guthrie sarcastically named his song "God Blessed America for Me" before settling on "This Land is Your Land." The original recording includes far more radical lyrics than those taught to American school children: There was a big high wall there that tried to stop me The sign was painted, said 'Private Property' But on the backside, it didn't say nothing This land was made for you and me Woody's daughter, Nora, discovers another verse that was never recorded: One bright sunny morning In the shadow of the steeple By the relief office I saw my people As they stood hungry I stood there wondering If God Blessed America for me Even though Guthrie never recorded it, Woody's son, Arlo, and Pete Seeger always sing the verse during live performances. In recognition of the song's place in American history, in 2002 the Library of Congress adds the song to the National Recording Registry, dedicated to preserving historically and culturally significant American sound recordings.
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