7 MARCH
Featured Events
2014 After completing treatment for an eating disorder, Ke$ha drops the $ from her stage name and changes her Twitter handle from @Ke$haSuxx to @KeshaRose ("Rose" is her middle name).More
2001 The National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) and the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) reveal their list of the top 365 "Songs Of The Century" (some of which are not songs, but albums). "Over The Rainbow" is #1, followed by "White Christmas" and "This Land Is Your Land."More
1994 The Supreme Court rules that parody constitutes fair use in deciding that 2 Live Crew's version of Roy Orbison's "(Oh) Pretty Woman" (where the woman is now big and hairy) is legal.More
1987 Licensed To Ill by Beastie Boys becomes the first rap album to top the US chart. It stays at #1 for seven weeks.
1985 The song "We are the World" is released as a single, soon achieving massive chart success all around the world. The song, written by Lionel Richie and Michael Jackson, is recorded for charity to help battle famine in Africa. The supergroup USA for Africa brought together for the recording features a stunning list of big names in music - everyone from Bruce Springsteen and Bob Dylan to Ray Charles, Cyndi Lauper and Dionne Warwick.
1983 Bananarama release their debut album, Deep Sea Skiving, featuring a hit cover of Steam's "Na Na Hey Hey Kiss Him Goodbye" and the Top 10 UK entry "Shy Boy."
1983 The English new wave duo Tears For Fears release their debut album, The Hurting, featuring the melancholic "Mad World." The album is inspired by the work of American psychologist Arthur Janov, founder of primal therapy.More
7 MARCH
In Music History
2016 Michael White, the British producer whose work includes the films Monty Python and the Holy Grail and The Rocky Horror Picture Show, dies of heart failure at age 80.
2015 Drake places an astounding 14 songs in the Hot 100, thanks to the release of his mixtape If You're Reading This It's Too Late. The Beatles are the only other act to accomplish this, with 14 songs on the tally for a week in April 1964. Drake goes on to place 27 songs on the chart dated July 14, 2018.
2013 Guitarist Peter Banks, a founding member of Yes, dies at age 65.
2009 Jimmy Boyd, known for introducing the 1953 Christmas tune "I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus," dies of cancer at age 70.
2001 Ex-Trammps member Jerry Collins is convicted of attempted murder after being found guilty of bashing his wife's head into a sink and also pistol-whipping her. He is sentenced to a maximum of 35 years.
2001 Ed Townshend, singer/songwriter of the 1957 hit "For Your Love," sues the R&B group K-Ci and JoJo, claiming they used his song in their recent hit "Just For Your Love."
2000 Country singer Pee Wee King dies at age 86.
1999 Marv Ingram of The Four Preps dies at age 60.
1998 Archbishop Franc Rode organizes a special mass to forgive the blasphemers who wrote and recorded "Bitchcraft."
1988 The drag queen Divine (Glenn Milstead) dies of a heart attack at age 42.More
1987 The first four Beatles albums are released on compact disc: Please Please Me, With The Beatles, A Hard Day's Night, Beatles For Sale. This marks the first time the band's official UK albums have been available as standard Beatles albums in the US, many being presented for the first time in America in their original mono mixes.
1987 The Beastie Boys appear on Soul Train, where they perform "Brass Monkey." They win over host Don Cornelius, who tells them, "You're very chilling, very hip, and we like your music."
1983 The Songwriter's Hall of Fame inducts Neil Sedaka and Stevie Wonder into their ranks during their annual New York ceremony.
1983 New Order release "Blue Monday," which becomes the biggest-selling 12-inch single of all time. The track is reissued twice by the band: in 1988 and 1995. Despite massive success in Europe and on the specialist dance chart, only the 1988 Quincy Jones remix makes it to the mainstream Billboard Hot 100, peaking at #68.
1979 The Police get a badly needed break when they play the Armadillo World Headquarters in Austin, Texas, where the radio station KLBJ has been playing their single "Roxanne," the first station in America to do so. The song starts to catch on, and seven weeks later peaks at #32, giving the band their first hit.
Spacek Plays Loretta Lynn In Coal Miner's Daughter
1980The Loretta Lynn biopic Coal Miner's Daughter, directed by Michael Apted, debuts in theaters. Sissy Spacek, who does her own singing, wins an Oscar for her portrayal of the country singer. Beverly D'Angelo costars as Lynn's mentor Patsy Cline.
The country singer handpicked the Carrie actress to portray her in Coal Miner's Daughter, which chronicles Lynn's rise to fame from her humble beginnings in backwoods Kentucky. Spacek was ready to turn down the role until a prayer for guidance was answered when "Coal Miner's Daughter" started playing on her car radio. But there was a problem. Despite an earlier foray into music (under the name Rainbo), she couldn't sing - at least not like Loretta. "I remember my husband would shut all the doors when I was rehearsing and my dog would howl — it was really not pretty," Spacek recalled. Lynn's longtime producer, Owen Bradley, stepped in to assist the actress in her vocal transformation. "He'd change the key a little bit, because my voice wasn't quite as high as hers," she explained. "One day I said to him, 'Owen, I can't do this song — I don't have vibrato in my voice.' And he said, 'Loretta didn't have vibrato anyway! She would just hold her hand up, and when she’d hold that note, she’d shake her hand!' Like a fool, I believed him, but it worked." It did work. Spacek took home the Oscar for Best Actress and earned a Grammy nomination for Best Female Country Vocal Performance. The film also spawns a Top 40 soundtrack (#2 Country) that includes tunes from Beverly D'Angelo as Patsy Cline, and Levon Helm, who made his acting debut as Lynn's father.
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