7 JUNE
Featured Events
2009 After performing the Poison hit "Nothin' but a Good Time" at the Tony Awards, Bret Michaels has a run-in with the set, and the set wins. He cuts his lip and fractures his nose in the incident.More
2004 AC/DC's Back in Black album goes Double Diamond, becoming just the sixth album with RIAA-certified sales of over 20 million in America. In November, the Shania Twain album Come On Over becomes the seventh. Both albums were produced by Mutt Lange.
1993 On his 35th birthday, Prince changes his name to an unpronounceable symbol, making him, literally, an icon.More
1982 Elvis Presley's Graceland mansion opens to the public. Visitors get to experience the Jungle Room (green shag carpets!), the Trophy Room, and the Meditation Garden.
1978 Tom Petty meets Bob Dylan for the first time backstage after Dylan's show at the Universal Amphitheater in Los Angeles.More
1977 The Sex Pistols make a mockery of Queen Elizabeth II's Silver Jubilee by playing punk rock from a boat on the Thames River, including their subversive hit, "Anarchy in the U.K."
1976 New York magazine runs a cover story called "Tribal Rites of the New Saturday Night," describing the disco-fueled nightclub scene. The article gives Bee Gees manager Robert Stigwood the idea for Saturday Night Fever.More
1975 Elton John's Captain Fantastic And The Brown Dirt Cowboy, with the hit "Someone Saved My Life Tonight," becomes the first album to debut at #1 in the US. It holds the top spot for seven (non-consecutive) weeks.
1958 Prince (Prince Rogers Nelson) is born in Minneapolis, Minnesota. He's named after his father's jazz combo, the Prince Rogers Trio.
1917 Dean Martin is born Dino Paul Crocetti in Steubenville, Ohio.
7 JUNE
In Music History
2012 Bob Welch, Fleetwood Mac's guitarist from 1971–1974, dies of suicide at age 66.More
2011 Def Leppard release their first ever live album: Mirrorball.
2008 Led Zeppelin's Jimmy Page and John Paul Jones make a surprise appearance to jam with Foo Fighters during their Wembley Stadium gig in London. The one-night-only supergroup plays "Rock And Roll" and "Ramble On."
2007 Rancho Mirage, California, names a street after one-time resident Dean Martin.
1994 Grace Slick of Jefferson Airplane/Starship is sentenced to 200 hours of community service on charges of pointing a loaded gun at police who responded to reports of a disturbance at her home on March 5th.
1994 Stone Temple Pilots release their second album, Purple, which goes to #1 in America and sells over 6 million copies on the strength of the tracks "Big Empty," "Vasoline" and "Interstate Love Song."
1993 Ground is broken for the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum in Cleveland.
1991 Spike Lee's film Jungle Fever debuts in theaters. It boasts a soundtrack written and produced by Stevie Wonder and features Queen Latifah's acting debut. The rapper plays a waitress who snubs the interracial couple played by Wesley Snipes and Annabella Sciorra.
1985 The movie Perfect debuts in theaters, starring John Travolta as a Rolling Stone reporter who falls for aerobics instructor Jamie Lee Curtis. While the drama is a dud with critics, it portrays Rolling Stone as more than a music magazine – which is exactly what its editor-in-chief Jann Wenner hoped. More
1984 The film Ghostbusters is released. Its theme song bears similarities to Huey Lewis's "I Want a New Drug." Ghostbusters theme writer Ray Parker, Jr. and Huey settle out of court.
1979 President Jimmy Carter decrees June as Black Music Month, which Barack Obama changes to African American Music Month in 2009.
1975 John Denver scores his third US #1 hit with "Thank God I'm A Country Boy."
1974 Terry "T-Low" Brown (of Next) is born in Minnesota.
1971 Don McLean records "Vincent."
1970 Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young play the Fillmore East in New York City, where Graham Nash debuts his song "Simple Man," written about his breakup with Joni Mitchell the day before. The show is broadcast live on WNEW-FM and later released as the album Fillmore East 1970.
Grease Debuts On Broadway
1972The musical Grease opens on Broadway.
With a cast led by Barry Bostwick and Adrienne Barbeau, Grease introduces a group of working class teens rebelling against polite society during the golden age of rock and roll in the '50s. Written by Chicago native Jim Jacobs and composer Warren Casey, the story unfolds around the romance of greaser Danny Zuko and virginal Sandy Dumbrowski and introduces rock-and-roll-inspired tunes like "Summer Nights," "Greased Lightnin'," "Look At Me, I'm Sandra Dee," and "Beauty School Dropout." Producers Ken Waissman and Maxine Fox brought Grease Off-Broadway after seeing a 1971 production in Chicago, and four months later the show makes its Broadway debut at the Broadhurst Theatre. Earlier versions are much raunchier to reflect '50s teen culture on the verge of the sexual revolution of the ensuing decade, but the buff and polish treatment for film audiences (1978's Grease, starring John Travolta and Olivia Newton-John) and subsequent revivals takes off a lot of the grit. Songs are edited for content that's too explicit - a whitewashed "school version" deletes swearing and references to smoking and alcohol - and dilute Grease's core message as a social commentary. Grease is nominated for seven Tony Awards, including Best Musical and Best Choreography. It will close its 3,388-performance run in 1980, at the time the longest-running show in Broadway history.
Categories
©2023 Songfacts®, LLC
Comments
send your comment