27 December

Pick a Day

27 DECEMBER

In Music History

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2016 Actress Carrie Fisher, known for her iconic role as Princess Leia in Star Wars, dies of a heart attack at age 60. The daughter of Singin' in the Rain actress Debbie Reynolds and former wife of Paul Simon (see "Hearts And Bones"), she also inspired the Blink-182 song "A New Hope": "Princess Leia where are you tonight; and who's laying there by your side."

2014 Alicia Keys gives birth to a second son, Genesis Ali Dean, with husband Swizz Beatz.

2013 Britney Spears debuts her Las Vegas show, Britney: Piece of Me, which runs for four years at the Planet Hollywood Resort & Casino.

2013 Vanessa Carlton marries John McCauley of Deer Tick in a ceremony officiated by Stevie Nicks.More

2008 Delaney Bramlett (of the '70s blues-rock duo Delaney & Bonnie) dies from complications of gall bladder surgery at age 69.

2004 Hank Garland, a Nashville session guitarist who performed with Johnny Cash and Patsy Cline, dies of a staph infection at age 74.

2003 Dick St. John (of the '60s pop duo Dick & Dee Dee) dies at age 63 after a fall from the roof of his home.

1989 Chuck Berry is sued by the former cook of his restaurant - The Southern Air, in Wentzville, Missouri - who claims Berry installed hidden cameras in the ladies restrooms and collected the videos. Over 200 former customers take part in a class action suit against Berry, which is eventually settled out of court.

1983 Rock 'n' roll singer Walter Scott (of Bob Kuban & the In-Men) is shot in the back and left floating in a cistern, where he is found four years later. James H. Williams Sr., who married Scott's second wife, JoAnn, after the singer's disappearance, is found guilty of the murder. JoAnn also receives a five-year prison sentence for hindering the prosecution.

1982 Billy Joel plays a benefit concert in Allentown, Pennsylvania as his song "Allentown" makes its way up the charts.

1981 "Georgia On My Mind" composer Hoagy Carmichael dies of heart failure at age 82.

1978 Big Star guitarist Chris Bell dies in a car accident at age 27.

1978 The BBC comes under fire when it plays part of the Sex Pistols' "God Save The Queen," which has been banned on the network, on a show called "Listen To The Banned." The educator Dr. Rhodes Boyson calls it "another sign of the declining public morality which so rightly worries the general public."

1978 Bob Luman, known for the 1960 novelty hit "Let's Think About Living," dies of pneumonia at age 41.

1975 The Faces announce their split. Rod Stewart devotes himself to his solo career and Ron Wood officially joins The Rolling Stones.

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Show Boat Becomes First Modern Musical

1927

Show Boat opens at the Ziegfeld Theatre on Broadway, changing the paradigm for modern musicals.


Early musicals are usually two-act shows with an emphasis on song and dance. Plots are kept simple: Boy meets girl, boy loses girl, boy gets girl. The young lovers always have at least one duet, and there is always a comic character to lighten the plot. Show Boat changes all that, as Jerome Kern combines multiple forms of ballet, music and theater to invent the modern musical. The first massively popular musical comedy, Show Boat tells a serious dramatic story about the lives of a family of showboat performers from the 1880s to the 1920s. With lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein II, it points the way to the musical plays of the 1940s and 1950s.

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