24 March

Pick a Day

24 MARCH

In Music History

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2020 Producers Swizz Beatz and Timbaland face off in the first Verzuz battle, where songwriters, producers and artists take turns performing their hits and are judged by an online audience. The series quickly becomes very popular, regularly drawing virtual audiences in the six figures. Popular battles include Gladys Knight vs Patti LaBelle, Teddy Riley vs Babyface, and Erykah Badu vs Jill Scott.

2010 Rock photographer Jim Marshall dies at age 74.

2009 Prince launches Lotusflow3r.com, which for $77 subscriptions, offers access to his videos and music. It shuts down after a year.

2009 Motown drummer Uriel Jones dies at age 74.

2007 Country singer Henson Cargill, known for the 1968 hit "Skip A Rope," dies during surgery at age 66.

2005 After Carrie Underwood performs "Alone" on American Idol, Simon Cowell, by far the harshest critic on the panel, predicts she will win the competition and sell more records than any previous Idol winner. He's right: She becomes the first country singer to win and ends up surpassing Kelly Clarkson as the best-selling alum of the show.

2001 "Duane Allman Boulevard" is dedicated in Macon, Georgia, near where he died in a motorcycle crash.

2001 After being dubbed Worst Actress of the Century a year earlier, Madonna lands her fifth Razzie for Worst Actress, for her role as Abbie Reynolds in The Next Best Thing, at the 21st Golden Raspberry Awards.

2001 John Connolly of Sevendust marries Lori Kirkley.

2000 MTV debuts the reality series Making the Band, with the first season spawning the boy band O-Town. Lou Pearlman, the creator of Backstreet Boys and *NSYNC, manages the group.

1997 Philadelphia soul singer Harold Melvin (of Harold Melvin & The Blue Notes) dies at age 57, months after suffering a debilitating stroke.

1992 A Tribe Called Quest release "Scenario," with a guest verse by little-known 19-year-old rapper Busta Rhymes.

1992 Arrested Development release their debut album, 3 Years, 5 Months and 2 Days in the Life of... It sells four million copies thanks to the hits "Tennessee," "People Everyday" and "Mr. Wendal."

1986 The Rolling Stones release their album Dirty Work. The first single is a cover of the soul classic "Harlem Shuffle."

1986 At the 58th Academy Awards in Los Angeles, Lionel Richie wins the Oscar for Best Original Song for his track "Say You, Say Me" from the film White Nights. The song topped three different Billboard charts but didn't appear on the soundtrack album for the movie. It was finally released on Lionel's 1986 album, Dancing on the Ceiling.

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Elvis Presley Enters The Army

1958

Elvis Presley goes to the Memphis Draft Board and enters the United States Army.


After wrapping up his movie King Creole, Elvis reports to the Memphis Draft Board and joins 12 other recruits on a bus bound for Kennedy Veterans Memorial Hospital before heading to Fort Chaffee, Arkansas, where he takes on the real-life role as Private Presley. Hundreds swarm the fort to bid farewell to the freshly sheared star, but Elvis leaves his fame behind with his lost locks. Determined to be treated like any other G.I. Joe, he tells the press: "The Army can do anything it wants with me." Despite the devastating death of his mother, Gladys, from a heart attack that August, Elvis makes good on his promise during basic training. While stationed at Fort Hood, Texas, he commences advanced tank training and is soon shipped off to Friedberg, Germany, with the Third Armored 'Spearhead' Division. During his 18-month stint, Elvis is an exemplary soldier and earns medals for marksmanship in addition to sergeant's stripes. Unfortunately, he also picks up an amphetamine habit that will eventually contribute to his death. In the meantime, he meets 14-year-old Priscilla Beaulieu, the stepdaughter of an Air Force captain, whom he'll marry in 1967. After two years of service, Sergeant Presley is honorably discharged from active duty on March 5, 1960. Of the experience, he tells Stars & Stripes magazine: "People were expecting me to mess up (laughs), to goof up in one way or another. They thought I couldn't take it and so forth, and I was determined to go to any limits to prove otherwise, not only to the people who were wondering, but to myself." Photo: National Archives

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James Marchment from Albany, Western AustraliaElvis Presley was always politely respectful of his interviewers, addressing them as "Sir" or "Ma'am"; a consistently decent man.

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