10 May

Pick a Day

10 MAY

In Music History

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2023 In Stockholm, Beyoncé kicks off her Renaissance tour, her first since her Formation tour in 2016. Among her accessories: Tiffany in-ear monitors with 4.5-carat diamonds.

2019 The #FreeBritney movement gains traction as supporters gather outside the Los Angeles courthouse where Britney Spears speaks to a judge about her conservatorship. Spears has been under the conservatorship, a legal maneuver typically used to protect the elderly or mentally incompetent, since 2008, with her father, Jamie Spears, conservator.

2018 Responding to the #MuteRKelly campaign, Spotify removes R. Kelly and XXXTentacion from playlists as part of a new policy against "hate content" and "hateful conduct." The capricious policy is rescinded two weeks later after an industry backlash.

2018 Scott Hutchison, the 36-year-old lead singer of the Scotish band Frightened Rabbit, is found dead after going missing a day earlier.

2016 Justin Timberlake performs his new single "Can't Stop the Feeling" in the interval of the Eurovision Song Contest as the show is broadcast in America for the first time. His appearance in Stockholm, Sweden, leads to speculation that the USA will be invited to enter the song competition, following the successful addition of Australia to the line-up in 2015.

2011 The Cars, disbanded since 1988, release their album Move Like This and kick off a tour with a concert at the Showbox in Seattle. It doesn't go well: tensions soon resurface, and the tour is cut short after less than a month. They don't play together again until their Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction in 2018.

2011 Norma Zimmer, The Lawrence Welk Show's longtime "Champagne Lady," dies at age 87.

2010 In tribute to the recently deceased Detroit Tigers broadcaster Ernie Harwell, Jose Feliciano performs the US national anthem before the Tigers/Yankees game at Tiger Stadium. In 1968, Harwell had Feliciano sing the anthem before a Tigers World Series game, and the 23-year-old blind Puerto Rican singer responded by playing the first non-traditional rendition of the song at a major sporting event. He and Harwell took a lot of heat, but in later years, it became common for singers to put their own spin on the song.

2009 Songwriter/historian Julie Coryell dies at 61.

2005 British soul and R&B singer Seal marries celebrity model Heidi Klum. The couple had been dating since 2004, when Klum gave birth to her daughter Leni, sired by her previous boyfriend; Seal was present at the birth and Klum announced that Seal would adopt Leni as her father. The couple have three biological children together before their divorce in 2012.

2003 #1 Billboard Album: Madonna's American Life

2003 Matthew West marries his long term girlfriend, Emily.

1994 Philadelphia rhymers G. Love & Special Sauce release their self-titled debut album, featuring "Cold Beverage" and "Baby's Got Sauce."

1994 Serial killer John Gacy, the subject of songs by Sufjan Stevens and Jane's Addiction, is executed for the murders of 33 young men and boys.

1992 Jazz singer Sylvia Syms (not to be confused with the actress Sylvia Syms) dies from a heart attack onstage at the Algonquin Hotel in New York.

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Shel Silverstein Dies

1999

Shel Silverstein, the prolific author of beloved children's books who was also a top songwriter, dies of a massive heart attack at age 68. He wrote "A Boy Named Sue" for Johnny Cash.


Chicago-born Silverstein rose to prominence during the mid-'50s as a cartoonist for Playboy magazine, traveling around the world and illustrating his exploits in the popular feature "Shel Silverstein visits..." A self-taught artist and poet, he developed a quirky style that amused adults and delighted children. With the whimsy of Dr. Seuss and a touch of Edward Lear-like macabre, Silverstein's collections of children's poems, notably Where the Sidewalk Ends (1974) and A Light In The Attic (1981), became beloved classics, along with his picture book The Giving Tree (1964), about a tree that sacrifices itself for the comfort and care of a growing boy. As a playwright, he also added over 100 one-act plays to his resume. All the while, he was channeling his offbeat sensibilities into another art form: music. Working mostly in the country genre as a singer-songwriter, he penned tunes for Loretta Lynn ("One's On The Way"), Bobby Bare ("The Mermaid"), Johnny Cash, and the Southern rock band Dr. Hook ("The Cover of 'Rolling Stone'"). The crossover Cash hit "A Boy Named Sue" earned the songwriter a Grammy Award for Best Country Song in 1970 - a bright spot in a tragic decade for Silverstein. His first wife, Susan Taylor Hastings, died in 1975 and their daughter, 11-year-old Shoshanna, died of a cerebral aneurysm in 1982. At the time of his death from a heart attack, he is survived by his son, Matthew. In 2002, Silverstein is remembered for his contribution to music when he's inducted into the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame. (photo: Larry Moyer)

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