2 March

Pick a Day

2 MARCH

In Music History

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2021 Dolly Parton gets the coronavirus vaccine, which she helped fund with a $1 million donation to Vanderbilt University Medical Center. To encourage others to get it, she posts video of her getting the shot on her social media channels and adapts her song "Jolene" to the occasion: Vaccine, vaccine, vaccine, vaccine I'm begging of you please don't hesitate

2014 Arby's buys the hat Pharrell Williams wore to the Grammys on eBay for $44,100. The fast-food chain donates the hat (which resembles their logo) to the Newseum in Washington, DC. Money from the auction goes to the From One Hand to Another charity.

2008 Canadian blues rocker Jeff Healey dies of cancer at age 41 in Toronto, Canada.

2008 Nine Inch Nails release their sixth album, an almost entirely instrumental Ghosts I-IV, as a free digital release - a concept they will revisit with their next album, The Slip, in July. Physical copies are sold at a regular price a few months after the digital releases.

2004 All Saints' Natalie Appleton gives birth to a son, Ace Billy Howlett. The father is her husband Liam Howlett (of The Prodigy).

2003 Hank Ballard, whose song "The Twist" became a national sensation when Chubby Checker recorded it, dies of throat cancer in Los Angeles, California, at age 75.

1992 The Oxford, England group On A Friday sign to EMI Records. They soon change their name to Radiohead and in 1993 issue their first album, Pablo Honey.

1991 Chris Isaak's "Wicked Game" peaks at #6 on the US chart, thanks to an instrumental version featured in the David Lynch film Wild at Heart.

1990 Luke Combs is born in Huntersville, North Carolina. He moves to Nashville and quickly lands a series of country hits, including "When It Rains It Pours" and "Beautiful Crazy."

1983 The Judds audition at RCA, singing mountain tunes and Naomi's unfinished original, "Change Of Heart." They earn a recording contract and issue their debut EP, Wynonna & Naomi, in January 1984.

1983 The first CD players are released in America, along with 16 albums on CD.

1977 Coldplay lead singer Chris Martin is born in Whitestone, Exeter, Devon, England.

1974 Olivia Newton-John wins the Grammy for Best Female Vocal Country Performance for "Let Me Be There." Country veterans are miffed, but reach full outrage when she takes the CMA award for Female Vocalist of the Year.

1974 Stevie Wonder wins four Grammy Awards, including Album of the Year for Innervisions. Gladys Knight & The Pips win for "Neither One of Us" (Best Pop Vocal Performance By A Duo, Group or Chorus) and "Midnight Train To Georgia" (Best R&B Vocal Performance By A Group).

1971 Rapper Method Man is born Clifford Smith in Long Island, New York.

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Madonna Debuts "Like A Prayer" In Pepsi Commercial

1989

"Like A Prayer" becomes the first hit song to debut in a commercial when it is used in a 2-minute Pepsi ad starring Madonna.

The spot is called "Make A Wish," and shows Madonna watching her 8-year-old self at her birthday party. The commercial airs in prime time around the world, but is never broadcast again because the next day, the video is released, and in it, Madonna kisses a black man and dances in front of burning crosses - not what Pepsi had in mind. The cola company drops Madonna, who gets to keep the remainder of her $5 million endorsement deal. The controversy helps send the song up the charts, and in April it hits #1 in America. Oddly, it is not the last time Pepsi uses a Madonna song in a commercial: In the "Joy of Pepsi" spot that airs during the 2016 Super Bowl, Janelle Monáe dances merrily along to "Express Yourself."

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