25 JANUARY
Featured Events
1991 Paul McCartney appears on the second season of MTV's Unplugged, including some Beatles songs in his set. In June, he becomes the first artist to release his performance as an album.
1980 Alicia Keys is born Alicia Augello Cook in Hell's Kitchen, Manhattan, New York. Her background as a classically trained pianist influences her stage name. "It's like the piano keys," she explains, "And it can open so many doors." Her first album, Songs In A Minor, featuring her own compositions, goes to #1 in 2001.
1971 Grace Slick and Paul Kantner of Jefferson Airplane welcome a baby girl they name "God." Her name is later changed to "China," and as "China Kantner" she becomes a VJ on MTV.
1938 Blues singer Etta James, known for the enduring ballad "At Last," is born Jamesetta Hawkins in Los Angeles, California.More
1915 Folk singer Ewan MacColl is born James Henry Miller in London. In 1957 he takes an hour to write "First Time Ever I Saw Your Face" for a play his mistress is appearing in and, 15 years later, it becomes a #1 hit for Roberta Flack.
25 JANUARY
In Music History
2016 Neil Young performs "Till the Morning Comes" live for the first time in his career while playing a private concert for French billionaire Édouard Carmignac. Young does the song as a medley with "Cripple Creek Ferry."
2003 Thanks to a raft of Grammy nominations, Norah Jones' debut album Come Away With Me goes to #1 in America 11 months after it was released. It stays on top for three weeks, then returns the week of March 15 after winning the Grammy for Album of the Year.
2003 Clarence Carter and Eddie Floyd are inducted into the Alabama Music Hall of Fame.
2003 Billy Joel crashes his Mercedes while driving in Long Island, New York. The singer later says that he was in a "mental fog" around this time, caused by relationship issues and a lingering depression after the September 11, 2001 attacks.
2000 D'Angelo releases his second album, Voodoo.
1999 The Rolling Stones begin their No Security tour in Oakland, California.
1994 R. Kelly releases the single "Bump N' Grind."
1990 In Rio De Janeiro, Eurythmics play their last concert until their 1999 reunion. "Dave [Stewart] and I had got quite heartily sick of each other," Annie Lennox explains. "And I say that in an affectionate way."
1990 The Righteous Brothers' Bill Medley guest stars on NBC's Cheers in the two-part episode "Finally!"
1989 Performing in Columbus, Georgia, Bobby Brown is arrested under the city's anti-lewdness act when he brings a girl on stage and simulates sex with her. Brown finishes the show about an hour later after he is booked and pays a $652 fine.
1987 Neil Diamond sings the US national anthem at Superbowl XXI in Pasadena, California. Halftime entertainment is Disney's "Salute to Hollywood's 100th Anniversary."
1986 Albert Grossman, manager to Bob Dylan and Janis Joplin, dies of a heart attack at age 59.
1985 Prince releases "Take Me With U," the last single from Purple Rain.
1984 John Lennon's widow, Yoko Ono, donates $375,000 to Liverpool's Strawberry Field, an orphanage which served as the inspiration for the Beatles song "Strawberry Fields Forever."
1980 The BET network goes on the air, providing a showcase for music videos by Black artists.
Blind Willie Johnson is Born
1897Blind Willie Johnson, known best for "Dark Was the Night, Cold Was the Ground," is born in Pendleton, Texas.
At seven years old, his stepmother throws a solution of lye water in his face in retaliation against his father. Johnson is blind from that day forward. Undeterred by the tragedy, Johnson goes on to become a popular street musician and evangelist. He attracts the attention of a Columbia Records talent scout. On December 3, 1927, Johnson records six songs. They are successes, selling 9,400 copies, and he becomes one of the more popular musicians of his day. Johnson continues to sell records until the financial stress of the Great Depression snatches his audience out from under him. His last recording sessions take place on April 20, 1930. With his musical fortune lost, he becomes reverend of the House of Prayer in Beaumont, Texas. There, he catches malarial fever and dies on September 18, 1945. Over thirty years later, in 1977, "Dark Was the Night, Cold Was the Ground" is included on the Voyager Golden Record and launched into outer space on the Voyager space probe.
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