29 JUNE
Featured Events
2007 Apple's new device, the iPhone, is released, integrating music into a phone for the first time.More
1999 Slipknot release their self-titled debut album. Metal Hammer magazine calls it the "best debut of the last 25 years."More
1987 Meeting at a London pub, a group of record label executives decide to use the term "World Music" to promote their international artists. This new designation becomes a section in many record stores and makes it much easier to classify artists that don't fit traditional genres.
1984 After a failed attempt shooting a studio video for "Dancing In The Dark," Bruce Springsteen does it live at his concert in St. Paul, Minnesota. During Clarence Clemons' sax solo, he brings a doe-eyed, 19-year-old Courteney Cox on stage to dance with him.More
1974 Neil Peart replaces John Rutsey as the drummer for Rush. Rutsey played on the band's first album, but Peart plays on the next 18, joining Geddy Lee and Alex Lifeson in one of the most venerable and productive partnerships in rock history.
1963 Del Shannon's cover of The Beatles' "From Me to You" enters the Hot 100 at #96, becoming the first Lennon-McCartney composition to chart in America. Shannon's version peaks at #77; in the UK the Beatles original hits #1 in May.
1928 The Winterland Ballroom opens in San Francisco, California. It's an ice-skating rink that can be converted into a general entertainment venue for opera, boxing, and other events, costing a whopping (for 1928) $1 million to build. It will go on to become a concert location for many famous acts, including The Sex Pistols, Neil Young, Bob Dylan, Peter Frampton, Deep Purple, Led Zeppelin, Jethro Tull, and Pink Floyd.
29 JUNE
In Music History
2020 Benny Mardones of "Into The Night" fame dies at 73 after a long battle with Parkinson's disease.
2007 George McCorkle, guitarist for The Marshall Tucker Band and composer of their hit "Fire On The Mountain," dies at age 59 shortly after being diagnosed with cancer.
2004 Rick James performs "Fire And Desire" with Teena Marie at the BET Awards. It's his last performance, as James dies five weeks later at 56.
2004 Rush release their 18th studio album, Feedback, comprised of eight cover songs selected from tunes that influenced each band member in their younger years.
2002 Rosemary Clooney dies of lung cancer at age 74.
2001 Dream A Little Dream: The Almost-True Story of the Mamas & the Papas, a stage musical penned by former Papas member Denny Doherty, premieres in Toronto.
2000 The casket holding Lynyrd Skynyrd lead singer Ronnie Van Zandt is stolen from its mausoleum in Jacksonville, Florida, but left after vandals are unable to open it. The ashes of Steve Gaines, the band's guitarist who died in the same plane crash that killed Van Zandt, are spilled from his urn, which is also stolen.
1999 Former teen heartthrob Leif Garrett is arrested in Los Angeles for possession of cocaine.
1998 German pianist Horst Jankowski dies of lung cancer at age 62.
1998 George Harrison announces that he is undergoing chemotherapy for throat cancer, with assurances that, "I'm not going to die on you folks just yet." He succumbs to the disease three years later.
1995 Ringo Starr's first-ever TV commercial, for Pizza Hut, debuts in the US, as does a similar spot by the newly re-formed Monkees.
1994 Barbra Streisand sets a new record after grossing $16 million for a series of Madison Square Garden comeback shows.
1992 Spurred by controversy over the song "Cop Killer," President George H. W. Bush speaks out against "those who use films or records or television or video games to glorify killing law enforcement officers."
1989 Three years after landing their first hit, the Pet Shop Boys, notoriously averse to live performance, launch their first tour with a show at Hong Kong Coliseum.
1988 Lionel Richie's wife Brenda is arrested for assaulting her husband after finding him at the apartment of another woman, Diane Alexander. The couple divorce in 1993, and in 1995, Richie marries Alexander.
Bond Film Debuts with A-ha Theme
1987The Living Daylights, the first James Bond film to star Timothy Dalton as 007, premieres in London. The theme song was written and performed by a-ha, who are unable to attend. The film's composer, John Barry, is asked about the Norwegian band and calls them "Hitler Youth."
Barry drops the comment in a Belgian newspaper interview after a contentious creative battle with the band, who release a different mix of the theme on their album Stay On These Roads. The Living Daylights is the last Bond film scored by Barry, who has been composing music for the series since 1963. When he met with the synthpop trio, known for their hit "Take On Me," his way of being friendly was to criticize their competition, Duran Duran, who performed the previous Bond theme for A View To A Kill. "He made some degrading comments about them and what they'd been doing and that didn't sit well with any of us," lead singer Morten Harket recalls to The Guardian. Although a-ha songwriter Pal Waaktaar admits he appreciates Barry's string arrangements, the group was reluctant to accept changes to their song. When Barry added the strings, he slightly altered the synth hook line, and a-ha responded by changing it back to the original. Barry likened the experience to "playing ping-pong with four balls." For the first time in Bond history, the title theme doesn't roll over the end credits. Instead, Chrissie Hynde of the Pretenders, whose band was in the running for the opener, closes out the movie with "If There Was a Man." "The Living Daylights" fails to make an impression in the US, but goes to #1 in the group's native Norway and #5 in the UK.
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