26 JULY
Featured Events
2015 In a field just outside of Cesena, Italy, 1000 musicians and singers play Foo Fighters "Learn to Fly" simultaneously with the dream of attracting the band to play a show in their city for the first time in nearly 20 years.More
2015 The first Black Lives Matter conference at Cleveland State University turns into a protest with activists chanting the chorus of Kendrick Lamar's "Alright" in defiance of police harassment.More
2002 Beyoncé makes her film debut, playing Mike Myers' love interest, Foxxy Cleopatra, in Austin Powers in Goldmember. Her catch phrase: "I'm a whole lotta woman." Britney Spears also shows up in the film as a fem-bot who gets blown up by Myers.More
1987 With the Cold War winding down, American export Billy Joel plays a concert in Leningrad - something that would be impossible a few years earlier. The show is released as the album KOHUEPT (Concert).
1986 Peter Gabriel hits #1 in the US with "Sledgehammer," bumping his old band, Genesis (with "Invisible Touch") out of the top spot.
1977 While touring the US with Led Zeppelin, Robert Plant learns that his 5-year-old son, Karac, has died of a stomach virus. The tour abruptly ends, and Led Zeppelin never again play in the United States.
1968 Auditioned to a sheen by their father Joe, The Jackson 5 join Motown Records, signing a one-year contract. They move from their home in Gary, Indiana, to Los Angeles, where they became huge stars, hitting #1 in the US with their first four singles.
1943 Mick Jagger of The Rolling Stones is born Michael Philip Jagger in Dartford, Kent, England.
26 JULY
In Music History
2023 Eagles founding member Randy Meisner dies from health issues at 77. He co-wrote and sang lead on "Take It To The Limit."
2021 Slipknot drummer Joey Jordison dies at 46.
2018 Paul McCartney plays a gig at The Cavern Club in Liverpool, where The Beatles did about 300 shows in the early '60s. At one point, he chastises the crowd for using their phones.
2017 A jury awards Quincy Jones $9.4 million in royalties for the use of Michael Jackson songs he produced in two Cirque du Soleil shows and the This Is It documentary. Jones filed suit in 2013, asking for $30 million.
2016 A video of celebrities performing an a cappella version of Rachel Platten's "Fight Song" is shown at the Democratic National Convention before Hillary Clinton takes the stage to accept the nomination.More
2016 A group of 40 or so Broadway stars takes the stage on Day 2 of the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia to sing "What the World Needs Now Is Love" in support of gun control legislation. These stars are part a group called Broadway For Orlando that was put together to record the song in honor of victims of the Orlando nightclub shooting on June 12, when 49 people were killed.More
2015 Bobbi Kristina Brown, daughter of Whitney Houston and Bobby Brown, dies at age 22. She is found unconscious in her bathtub, and the cause of death is eventually revealed as "immersion associated with drug intoxication."
2013 Oklahoma guitarist J.J. Cale, who wrote the songs "Call Me The Breeze" and "After Midnight," dies at age 74.
2012 Searching For Sugar Man, an Academy Award-winning documentary about Detroit Rocker Sixto "Sugar Man" Rodriguez, is released in the UK.
2011 Eric Church releases his breakthrough album, Chief, with the hits "Springsteen" and "Drink In My Hand."
2006 Paul McCartney's first guitar is sold at an Abbey Road Studios auction for 330,000 pounds, or about half-a-million US dollars.
2003 Vegas mainstay Tom Jones in inducted into the Gaming Hall Of Fame, along with Harrah's exec Phil Satre.
2003 Limp Bizkit appear at the Hawthorne Racetrack in Chicago as part of Metallica's Summer Sanitarium tour with Deftones, Linkin Park and Mudvayne. But the crowd soon shows how they feel about frontman Fred Durst and his crew, as the band is booed and Durst is pelted with coins and bottles, leading him to launch into homophobic taunts. As a result, Limp Bizkit leaves the stage after 30 minutes and only six songs, but not before Durst challenges audience members to a fight.
2002 A week before he is due to sign a contract with Universal South Records, Matthew West suffers a serious injury to his arm. Having accidentally locked himself in his house, West attempts to escape through a window, but his arm goes straight through the glass pane. West is rushed to hospital, where he is told he came close to severing a major artery. He will go on to fully recover from the incident.
Go-Go's-themed Musical Opens On Broadway
2018The Broadway musical Head Over Heels, an Elizabethan farce inspired by the music of The Go-Go's, premieres at the Hudson Theatre in New York City.
The jukebox musical could have easily been about the girl group's rise to fame in the '80s, set to their greatest hits. Instead, Head Over Heels – Gwyneth Paltrow's first attempt as Broadway producer - takes us on a rollicking Elizabethan jaunt, loosely based on the 16th century prose poem The Arcadia by Sir Philip Sidney. The townspeople of Arcadia are rattled by a prophecy that threatens to eliminate the source of their happiness: "The Beat." They launch into the Go-Go's hit "We Got The Beat" and the farce is off and running through a journey of new wave music and sexual exploration. Kathy Valentine, the group's bassist, tells The New York Times: "The Go-Go's have a sense of humor, there is an edge and a twist to us that isn't always apparent, and to me the show captures that." The show is a big hit and is praised for its LGBTQ themes, with lots of same-sex couplings and plenty of drag. Peppermint of Ru Paul's Drag Race, the oracle who delivers the central prophecy, makes history as the first transgender woman to originate a major role on Broadway. For show director Michael Mayer, the title tune, which introduces Act 2, is the heart of the production. "The idea that love can turn you upside down is so much of what the show is about."
Categories
©2024 Songfacts®, LLC
Comments
send your comment