Pick a Day

Music History Events: Recordings

February 24, 1957 Elvis Presley records "Loving You."

June 27, 1956 At Master Recorders in Hollywood, Fats Domino records "Blueberry Hill," a song popularized by Gene Autry in 1940. Domino's version, with his famous piano intro, becomes his biggest hit and the definitive version of the song.

November 16, 1954 Perry Como records "(There's No Place Like) Home For The Holidays."

July 15, 1952 13-year-old Jimmy Boyd records "I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus."

June 23, 1950 Gary and Bing Crosby record "Play A Simple Melody," 36 years after its debut in the Irving Berlin musical Watch Your Step.

December 10, 1949 At J&M Studio in New Orleans, Fats Domino records his first single, "Detroit City Blues," backed with "The Fat Man." The B-side becomes the hit, the first of many for Domino.

October 29, 1947 Frank Sinatra records "What'll I Do?"

January 9, 1947 Frank Sinatra records the Irving Berlin ballad "Always."

December 17, 1939 George Formby records "Mr Wu's A Window Cleaner Now."

August 31, 1939 Frank Sinatra records "All Or Nothing At All," one of his first big hits.

May 13, 1938 Louis Armstrong records an influential jazz rendition of the Black spiritual "When The Saints Go Marching In," which becomes a jazz and pop standard.

November 13, 1935 Bing Crosby records "Silent Night."

February 23, 1933 Daisy Canfield Danziger, oil heiress and estranged wife of silent screen star Antonio Moreno, dies on the way home from a party when her car careens off Mulholland Drive in Los Angeles. The music connection? Daisy allegedly haunts her former home, The Paramour Mansion, which has been the site of many album recording sessions, from My Chemical Romance's The Black Parade to Papa Roach's The Paramour Sessions.More

March 3, 1931 Cab Calloway records "Minnie The Moocher" on the Brunswick label in New York City. It would become the first jazz recording to sell a million copies.

April 30, 1930 Blind Willie Johnson, best known for "Dark Was the Night, Cold Was the Ground," records for the very last time.

December 4, 1928 Louis Armstrong records "Basin Street Blues."

December 3, 1927 Columbia Records talent scout Frank Buckley Walker records Blind Willie Johnson, Billiken Johnson, and Coley Jones in Dallas, Texas. The recordings turn Johnson into one of the most popular musical acts of his time and capture his immortal "Dark Was the Night, Cold Was the Ground."

October 31, 1927 Hoagy Carmichael records his most famous composition, "Star Dust."

February 26, 1926 Louis Armstrong introduces scat singing when he records "Heebie Jeebies." As Armstrong tells it, he improvised his vocals when his lyric sheet fell off the stand.

November 4, 1925 Blues guitar innovator Lonnie Johnson makes his first recording, putting down "Mr. Johnson's Blues" in a session for OKeh Records. Johnson's music fuels a blues craze throughout the rest of the decade and influences the next generation of blues and folk musicians.

August 17, 1917 The Original Dixieland Jass Band (shortly after changing "Jass" to "Jazz") makes the first recording of the standard "Tiger Rag."

February 26, 1917 The first ever jazz single, "Livery Stable Blues," is recorded by the Original Dixieland Jass Band in New York. It sells a million copies and launches jazz as a national phenomenon.

February 12, 1912 Billy Murray records "Alexander's Bag-Pipe Band."

June 7, 1911 Ragtime performers Arthur Collins & Byron G. Harlan record Irving Berlin's "Alexander's Ragtime Band," which will hold the top spot for 10 weeks.

April 3, 1902 The first series of Alessandro Moreschi's solo recordings is made; he is the only castrato to be recorded solo.