22 March

Pick a Day

22 MARCH

In Music History

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2019 Scott Walker dies at 76. In the UK, he became a pop star in the '60s, but turned to more experimental music in ensuing years.

2017 Original Boston drummer Sib Hashian, who played on their first two albums, dies at age 67 after collapsing during the Legends of Rock Cruise.

2016 After years of health problems and a battle with diabetes, Phife Dawg of A Tribe Called Quest dies at age 45.

2013 My Chemical Romance announce their breakup after 12 years as a band. They return to action in 2019.

2013 Australian singer-songwriter Vance Joy releases his debut EP, God Loves You When You're Dancing.

2009 Folk music historian Archie Green dies at age 91.

2006 Cuban singer Pío Leyva (of Buena Vista Social Club) dies of a heart attack at age 88.

2006 Aerosmith cancels the rest of their Rockin' The Joint tour so lead singer Steven Tyler can have throat surgery to treat strained vocal chords.

2005 Rod Price (guitarist for Foghat) dies after suffering a heart attack and falling down a flight of stairs at his home.

2002 Celine Dion releases the album A New Day Has Come, which goes to #1 in many territories, including the US, UK, and Canada.

2001 Earl Beal of The Silhouettes dies at age 71.

1997 "Can't Nobody Hold Me Down" by Puff Daddy goes to #1, the first of four chart-toppers in 1997 from his Bad Boy label. The others are "Hypnotize" and "Mo Money Mo Problems" by The Notorious B.I.G., and "I'll Be Missing You" by Puff, his tribute to B.I.G., who died on March 9, 1997.

1996 Don Murray (drummer for The Turtles) dies of complications from ulcer surgery at age 50.

1994 Ted Nugent, always a straight arrow, makes a PSA warning kids of the dangers of abusing inhalants.

1994 Dan Hartman dies of an AIDS-related brain tumor at age 43.

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Pink Floyd Has A Hit Single

1980

Pink Floyd tops the Hot 100 with "Another Brick In The Wall (part II)," which stays a total of four weeks. It's a rare hit single for the band, whose only other Top 40 appearance is "Money," which hit #13 in 1973.

The band are not known for their single releases, focusing most of their post-1960s output on increasingly elaborate concept albums. Following the chart success of the track in the UK over Christmas 1979, the disco-tinged cut is released as a 7-inch in the US, in support of their epic new double album The Wall. Producer Bob Ezrin has transformed the band's original minute-and-a-half demo recording into a multi-tracked masterpiece, using cutting-edge studio technology to physically copy and paste the tape to increase the length of the song. His inspired decision to add a choir of London school children to pad out the second verse (following his use of a similar format on Alice Cooper's hit "School's Out") leads to the band's biggest ever commercial single success. Recording of the record has been fraught. Sessions took place in London, Paris and New York as Britain's punitive tax laws drove the band into a year's exile. The titular "wall" is both a metaphor for the separation between band and audience, and also a literal barrier. The band's lavish stage shows feature a huge polystyrene wall being erected in front of the musicians. Band leader Roger Waters has grown increasingly frustrated by his bandmates' reluctance to share his creative vision, and founding member Richard Wright finds himself unceremoniously fired - and then rehired as a session musician for the supporting world tour. Ironically, due to their huge production costs, Wright is the only member of Pink Floyd to make any money from the shows. The single stays at the top spot for a month. Follow up, "Run Like Hell," fails to make the same impact on the charts, and the band's next album, The Final Cut (1983), is their last with Waters at the helm.

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