23 MARCH
In Music History
1965 Marti Pellow (lead singer of Wet Wet Wet) is born Mark McLachlan in Clydebank, Scotland.
1964 John Lennon's book In His Own Write is published.
1963 Dion DiMucci marries Sue Butterfield two years after releasing his hit "Runaround Sue." His bride has nothing to do with the song, but often tells people she is so they will remember her. Their marriage lasts a lifetime.
1961 Elvis Presley records "Can't Help Falling In Love."
1960 Elvis Presley releases "Stuck On You" b/w "Fame And Fortune."
1959 Ray Peterson records "The Wonder Of You."
1959 Kevin Godfrey is born in Surrey, England. Taking the name "Epic Soundtracks," he forms the group Swell Maps and plays drums in Crime & the City Solution and These Immortal Souls.
1956 Eleven teens are arrested at the "Rock & Roll Stage Show," featuring Frankie Lymon in Hartford, Connecticut.
1956 Fats Domino headlines the first day of a 3-day concert organized by the DJ Alan Freed in Hartford, Connecticut. Over the course of the shows, 11 fans are arrested by over-zealous police. It's a litmus test for rock concerts and their effect on young people, as psychiatrist Francis Braceland testifies afterwards that rock music is "a communicable disease with music appealing to adolescent insecurity and driving teenagers to do outlandish things. It is cannibalistic and tribalistic."
1953 Chaka Khan (of Rufus) is born Yvette Marie Stevens in Chicago, Illinois.
1951 Contemporary Christian musician Phil Keaggy is born in Youngstown, Ohio.
1950 Phil Lanzon (keyboardist for Uriah Heep) is born in England.
1944 Ric Ocasek of The Cars is born in Baltimore, Maryland. His date of birth is often reported at March 23, 1949 because that's what he often claimed, but records show he was actually born five years earlier.
1743 George Frideric Handel's "Messiah" has its London premiere at the Covent Garden Theatre. It is not well received as the press feels that the work's subject matter is too exalted to be performed in a theatre, particularly by secular singer-actresses such as Susanna Cibber and Kitty Clive.
Billy Joel Marries His Uptown Girl
1985Billy Joel marries the "Uptown Girl" Christie Brinkley. They remain married for nine years.
Read more23 MARCH
Featured Events
2004 Usher releases his fourth album, Confessions, which goes on to sell over 10 million copies in America. The lead single, "Yeah!," is already three weeks into a 12-week run at #1.
2002 At the 22nd Golden Raspberry Awards, Mariah Carey takes home her first Razzie as Worst Actress for her starring role in Glitter. The film earns a total of six nominations, including one for Mariah's cleavage as Worst Couple.
2002 At the 75th Academy Awards, Eminem becomes the first rapper to take home an Oscar when "Lose Yourself," from his semi-biographical film 8 Mile, wins Best Original Song. Eminem doesn't bother to attend the ceremony, thinking he has no chance of winning, so his friend and producer Luis Resto accepts the honor in his absence.
2002 The O Brother Where Art Thou? soundtrack, featuring a popular revival of the mountain ballad "Man of Constant Sorrow," takes bluegrass to #1 in America.More
1990 The romantic comedy Pretty Woman, starring Richard Gere and Julia Roberts, debuts in US theaters. Named for Roy Orbison's classic tune, it also boasts an impressive soundtrack, including the #1 hit "It Must Have Been Love" by Roxette.More
1985 John Fogerty's comeback album Centerfield hits #1 in America. He had plenty of time to work up material: Fogerty took 10 years off because of a dispute with his former record label.
1974 Hall & Oates' "She's Gone" peaks at #60 on the Hot 100. Later that year, a version by Tavares hits #50, and in 1976, the original goes to #7 when it is re-released. The duo were each dealing with girl problems when they wrote the song together.
1959 Bobby Darin's first full-length album, That's All, is released. Among the tracks is "Mack The Knife," a song about a cold-blooded murderer popularized in the play The Threepenny Opera. Considered just an album cut at first, in August the song is released as a single, and it transforms Darin's career, going to #1 for nine weeks and making him one of the most popular entertainers in America.
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