25 APRIL
Featured Events
2006 Bruce Springsteen releases We Shall Overcome: The Seeger Sessions, a collection of songs popularized by Pete Seeger. The album brings Seeger into the spotlight, drawing attention to his work as a musicologist and scion of folk music. "I've managed to survive all these years by keeping a low profile," Seeger says. "Now my cover's blown."
2002 30-year-old Lisa "Left Eye" Lopes (of TLC) dies in a car accident in La Ceiba, Honduras, after swerving to avoid an oncoming vehicle and losing control. The only passenger fatally injured, she's thrown from the car and dies instantly.
1999 It's Joe DiMaggio Day at Yankee Stadium, where Paul Simon performs "Mrs. Robinson," which contains the classic line, "Where have you gone, Joe DiMaggio?"
1994 A jury rules that Michael Bolton's 1991 hit "Love Is a Wonderful Thing" plagiarizes The Isley Brothers 1966 song of the same name and awards $5.4 million in damages, the largest ever in a music plagiarism case.More
1992 "Jump" by Kris Kross hits #1 in the US, where it stays for eight weeks. Kris Kross is the rap duo of Chris Kelly and Chris Smith, who are both 13. The track is produced by Jermaine Dupri, who goes on to supply beats for another youngster: Lil Bow Wow.
1987 U2's fifth album, The Joshua Tree, hits #1 in America, giving the band their rock star bona fides in that country (they've been huge in their native Ireland for years). It holds the top spot for an impressive nine weeks, finally dethroned by Whitney Houston's Whitney.
1970 The Jackson 5 bump The Beatles ("Let It Be") off the top spot in America with "ABC."
1917 Jazz singer Ella Fitzgerald is born in Newport News, Virginia.
25 APRIL
In Music History
2023 Harry Belafonte dies from heart failure at 96. He brought calypso music to the fore in the 1950s, most famously with "The Banana Boat Song (Day-O)."
2018 Kanye West tweets his love for Donald Trump, earning him plaudits from the President but criticism from fans.More
2007 "Monster Mash" singer Bobby "Boris" Pickett at age 69 of complications from leukemia.
2004 Billy Joel, who is much better behind a piano than at the wheel of a car, gets in another car accident - his third in two years.
2003 Liv Tyler, whose stepfather is Todd Rundgren and biological is Steven Tyler, marries Spacehog frontman Royston Langdon at a ceremony in New York attended by celebrity guests that include David Bowie and Kate Hudson. The couple split in 2008.
2003 The parents of the late Doors frontman, Jim Morrison, sue the remaining members for touring with a new singer as "The Doors 21st Century" using the band's image and logo.
2000 Papa Roach releases the album Infest, a nu-metal milestone with the hits "Last Resort" and "Broken Home."
2000 Eric Clapton is reunited with his former Derek & the Dominos keyboard player Bobby Whitlock for their first performance together in 29 years. The setting is the London-based BBC TV series Later With Jools Holland.
1999 Funk percussionist Larry Troutman (of Zapp), age 54, fatally shoots his brother and bandmate Roger Troutman, age 47, outside a recording studio in Dayton, Ohio, before turning the gun on himself. With no known witnesses, the motive for the murder-suicide is unclear, but family members suggest conflict over finances.
1995 Ginger Rogers, Academy Award-winning actress and longtime dance partner of Fred Astaire, dies at age 83 of a heart attack.
1994 Maggie Rogers is born in Easton, Maryland.
1994 Eagles play the first of two identical shows at Warner Bros. Studios in Burbank, California for their appearance on MTV Unplugged, which will promote their upcoming reunion tour and album Hell Freezes Over.
1993 Legendary album artist Stanley "Mouse" Miller, designer of Grateful Dead's "skull and roses" logo, has his upcoming liver transplant financed by the band.
1990 A London auction house sells the Fender Stratocaster on which Jimi Hendrix played the US national anthem at Woodstock for $295,000.
RuPaul Works It At The LGBT March On Washington
1993RuPaul performs "Supermodel (You Better Work)" at the LGBT March on Washington.
Having conquered the New York drag scene, RuPaul is enjoying success as a singer... well, a vocalist. In "Supermodel," he mostly says things like "work" and "sashay, chantay," but he does it with tremendous confidence. The song is a huge hit in New York dance clubs and has risen to #45 on the Hot 100, making him the first drag queen to land on the chart. RuPaul is also an activist and a talented speaker. After doing a typically sassy performance of the song, he declares, "My name is RuPaul and I'm the supermodel of the world," before encouraging the crowd to take action, and stating his ambitions. "People ask me all the time where I see myself in 10 years. I see myself in the White House, baby." Already a leading drag queen RuPaul becomes a mouthpiece for the entire LGBT community and goes mainstream, earning an endorsement deal with MAC Cosmetics and appearances on The Brady Bunch Movie and the TV series Nash Bridges. He goes on to get his own shows on VH1 (The RuPaul Show) and Logo (RuPaul's Drag Race).
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