Today in Music History for Aug. 31:
In 1922, Canadian country singer Orval Prophet was born in Edwards, Ont. After a 1949 Canadian tour with Wilf Carter, Prophet became the second Canadian -- after Hank Snow -- to record in Nashville. His "Going Back to Birmingham," "Judgment Day Express," and "Molly Darling" were hits in both the U.S. and Canada in the early 1950s. Later in the decade, under the name Johnnie Six, he recorded the hit "Mademoiselle." Prophet was inducted into the RPM Canadian Music Industry Hall of Fame in 1979. He died Jan. 4, 1984.
In 1945, rock singer Van Morrison was born in Belfast. In the early 1960s, Morrison founded the blues-based group, "Them," whose biggest success was the 1965 hit "Here Comes the Night." Morrison began his solo career in 1967 with "Brown-Eyed Girl," a top-10 hit. Since then, he has produced a wide variety of albums, ranging from R&B to Irish folk music. But Morrison's career has been held back somewhat by his inability to communicate with audiences during live performances.
In 1963, "My Boyfriend's Back" by "The Angels" became the No. 1 record on the Billboard pop chart. This New York girl group was first known as "the Starlits," then drew the name "The Blue Angels" out of a hat, dropping the "Blue" before their first record was released.
In 1969, "Bob Dylan and The Band" played the Isle of Wight Pop Festival. It was Dylan's first live performance since a disabling motorcycle crash three years earlier. In the audience were members of "The Beatles," "The Rolling Stones" and "The Who." Portions of the performance turned up on Dylan's "Self-Portrait" album.
In 1979, "Led Zeppelin's" last album of new material, "In Through the Out Door," debuted at the No. 1 position on the Billboard chart. It was only the second time in history that an album had entered the chart at No. 1.
In 1980, singer Karen Carpenter married real estate developer Thomas Burris in Beverly Hills, Calif. They divorced the following year. Carpenter died of heart failure, brought on by anorexia nervosa, in 1983.
In 1984, Canada's music video television service, "MuchMusic," went on the air at 6 p.m. ET with a launch party broadcast live from studios in Toronto. The first video broadcast was Eubie Blake's "Snappy Songs" from the 1920s. It was the first film to use synchronized music. The station then gave a world premiere of the video for "Rush's" "The Enemy Within." The "MuchMusic" channel followed the successful MTV service in the U.S. "MuchMusic" evolved from "The New Music," a syndicated music interview program that originated at Toronto's City-TV.
In 1984, "Poncho and Lefty," a joint LP by Merle Haggard and Willie Nelson, was certified platinum in the U.S. -- one million copies sold.
In 1987, "Bad," Michael Jackson's long-awaited followup to his record-setting 1982 LP "Thriller," was released to stores in North America. The 18-minute video for the title track, directed by Martin Scorsese, was shown that night as part of a half-hour CBS program called "Michael Jackson: The Magic Returns." Radio stations in the U.S. had the album since Aug. 27, and stations in Canada began playing selections from "Bad" a day later.
In 1989, "The Rolling Stones" opened their first concert tour in eight years before more than 50,000 fans at Veterans Stadium in Philadelphia. They began with their 1981 hit "Start Me Up," and performed two more songs before a power failure interrupted the show for five minutes. The band's "Steel Wheels" tour included three concerts in Toronto.
In 1993, Al Trace, the bandleader and songwriter who popularized the silly ditty "Mairzy Doats" in 1943, died in Sun City West, Ariz. He was 92. "Mairzy Doats" was a string of near-nonsense verses on livestock eating habits that begins with the line "Mairzy doats and dozie doats and little lambsy divey." Although Trace didn't write the song, his version was on the Lucky Strike Hit Parade for 20 weeks. Among the songs that Trace did write were "You Call Everybody Darling" and "If I Knew You Were Coming I'd've Baked a Cake."
In 1993, a Cleveland jury awarded $900,000 to a woman who claimed she developed multiple sclerosis after being knocked over by some chairs at a Kenny Rogers concert. The judgment was against the singer's production company. Security guards were escorting Rogers on stage in 1989 when 35-year-old Kathy Hendricks was hurt. Her lawyers said she landed on her back and head, and the trauma triggered the onset of MS.
In 1994, R. Kelly married Aaliyah in Rosemont, Ill. He was 25, but she was 15 -- a year under the state legal age for marriage. The marriage was later annulled.
In 1995, Grammy Award-winning gospel singer Sandi Patty admitted she had an extramarital affair with backup singer Don Peslis. The admission came several weeks after she and Peslis were married. At the time of the affair, Patty was married to her manager, John Helvering. Her label, Word Records, said it would postpone release of her Christmas album because of the disclosure.
In 2002, jazz great Lionel Hampton died at Mount Sinai Medical Center in Manhattan at the age of 94.
In 2009, pop-punk band "Blink-182" pulled out of its show in Saratoga Springs, N.Y., saying band members were grieving the death of their friend, celebrity disc jockey Adam (DJ AM) Goldstein, who was found dead on Aug. 28. The band also cancelled appearances in St. Louis and Cleveland and resumed touring on Sept. 4.
In 2009, Peter Gabriel and Venezuelan composer Jose Antonio Abreu were awarded the Polar Music Prize in Stockholm, Sweden.
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The Canadian Press