15 DECEMBER
Featured Events
2014 Little Big Town release "Girl Crush," a jealousy ballad in 6/8 time. The unusual song becomes a huge hit, going to #1 on the Country chart and winning the CMA Awards for Single of the Year and Song of the Year.
1979 Pink Floyd's "Another Brick In The Wall (part II)" goes to #1 on the UK singles chart.
1979 The Buggles song "Video Killed The Radio Star" reaches its American chart peak of #40 (in the UK, it hit #1 in September). On August 1, 1981, it becomes the first music video played on MTV. Record stores in areas with high cable penetration are baffled when folks show up looking for the song.
1974 Young Frankenstein opens in theaters. When members of Aerosmith take a break from recording the Toys in the Attic album and see the film, they laugh hysterically at the scene where Igor (Marty Feldman) tells Dr. Frankenstein (Gene Wilder) to "walk this way," and the doctor imitates Igor's walk. Returning to the studio, they have the title to the track they've been working on.More
1969 John Lennon and Yoko Ono launch the "War Is Over" campaign with billboards declaring peace around the world.More
1921 Alan Freed is born in Johnstown, Pennsylvania. At the Cleveland radio station WJW, he becomes the first white disc jockey to play upbeat rhythm and blues records north of the Mason Dixon line. At the time, they are called "race" records, but Freed calls the music "rock and roll." Freed attracts a large following on WJW, and his late-night radio show, the Moondog Rock 'n' Roll Party, helps increase the popularity of rhythm and blues and makes Cleveland a trendsetter in Midwestern pop culture.
15 DECEMBER
In Music History
2015 In an interview with the London commuter freesheet Metro, Carol Decker of T'Pau is asked if her autobiography gave her any insights into her personality. She replies: "It did actually. I'm a bit of a c***."
2014 After a 14-year hiatus, D'Angelo releases his third studio album, Black Messiah.
2009 The RIAA certifies 5 million ringtone sales of Lil Wayne's "Lollipop," making it the best-selling ringtone ever.
2001 Joe Walsh receives an honorary doctorate of music from Kent State University.
2001 Rufus Thomas - R&B, funk, and soul singer - dies of heart failure in Memphis, Tennessee, at age 84.
1990 Rod Stewart marries the supermodel Rachel Hunter, telling reporters, "I've put my last banana in the fruit bowl." The couple split eight years later.
1988 For his interstate car chase and numerous drug, firearms, and assault offenses, James Brown is sentenced to six and one-half years in a South Carolina prison. He serves a little more than two.
1986 At the Oakland Coliseum Arena, the Grateful Dead play their first concert since frontman Jerry Garcia slipped into a diabetic coma six months earlier. With Garcia's heath scare, it was unclear if the band would continue, but Garcia reassures fans with the opening number, "Touch Of Grey," as he sings, "I will get by. I will survive."
1984 Olivia Newton-John marries Xanadu dancer Matt Lattanzi. They divorce in 1995.
1979 Jackie Brenston, R&B singer and saxophonist, dies of a heart attack in Memphis, Tennessee, at age 49. Recorded the original "Rocket 88" with Ike Turner.
1977 The Who perform a secret concert for fan club members at London's Shepperton Studios. The show is filmed for Jeff Stein's upcoming Who documentary The Kids Are Alright.
1975 Parliament release their album Mothership Connection, which takes the George Clinton-led group into their own funky universe. On the album cover, Clinton is shown emerging from a spaceship. On their subsequent tour, they introduce a much larger ship (the "Mothership") that descends to the stage when they play the title track.
1973 Jermaine Jackson of The Jackson 5 marries the boss' daughter, Hazel Gordy, whose dad is Motown founder Berry Gordy. The couple divorce in the late '80s.
1973 Charlie Rich's "The Most Beautiful Girl" hits #1 for the first of two weeks.
1969 John Lennon makes his last stage appearance in England when he performs with the Plastic Ono Band at the UNICEF "Peace For Christmas" charity concert in London. George Harrison, Eric Clapton and Keith Moon join him on stage.
Dr. Dre Releases The Chronic
1992Dr. Dre releases his debut solo album, The Chronic, a G-funk landmark featuring Snoop Doggy Dogg.
In 1991, Dre was the hottest producer in rap, thanks to his work with N.W.A. That year, he formed Death Row Records with Suge Knight, a burly boss who used to play for the Los Angeles Rams. When the little-known rapper Snoop Doggy Dogg signed on (introduced by Dre's stepbrother Warren G), Dre featured him on the title track from the Deep Cover where Snoop memorably rhymed about a "187 on an undercover cop," making him a hot commodity. Along with Warren G, Nate Dogg and a few other Death Row artists, he is all over The Chronic, his mellow flows the perfect topline for Dre's squishy beats. "Chronic" is kind of bubonic marijuana, which the guys smoked so much, it became the album title. Weed was plentiful, but money wasn't - all the better for songs about life on the streets. Dre is the mastermind, piecing the tracks together with whatever is called for - flutes, keyboards, strings - but mostly drums and big bass grooves. And samples. Lots of samples. Mostly from '70s R&B and funk tracks. The album is so original it gets its own genre: G-Funk. The sound is copied for most of the decade, forming what becomes known as gangsta rap. Death Row becomes wildly successful but gets out of control fast. In 1996, Dre leaves and forms another label, Aftermath. In 1998, he signs a promising rapper named Eminem and a year later unleashes him with The Slim Shady LP.
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