Today in Music History for June 18:
In 1830, Elizabeth Cecilia Clephane, an orphaned Scottish poet, was born. Two of her most notable hymns were "Beneath the Cross of Jesus" and “The Ninety and Nine.”
In 1913, lyricist Sammy Cahn, who had an astounding number of hit songs over his more than 50-year career, was born in New York City. He collaborated with such composers as Saul Chaplin, Jule Styne and Jimmy Van Heusen. He died on Jan. 15, 1993. He was 79.
In 1915, A.P. Carter and Sara Dougherty married in Virginia. Together with Maybelle Addington, who married A.P.'s brother, they formed "The Carter Family," one of the most influential groups in country music. "The Carter Family's" biggest seller, "Wildwood Flower," was recorded in 1928.
In 1942, Paul McCartney, the most commercially successful former member of "The Beatles," was born in Liverpool, England. McCartney's association with John Lennon began in 1956 when he asked to join Lennon's group, "The Quarrymen," which evolved into "The Beatles." With Lennon, and on his own, McCartney wrote such classic "Beatles" songs as "Hey Jude," "Yesterday" and "Let It Be." McCartney began a career on his own in 1969, just before the breakup of "The Beatles," by recording a solo album which contained the hit single, "Maybe I'm Amazed." His second album, "Ram," yielded two major hits -- "Another Day" and "Uncle Albert-Admiral Halsey." In 1971, McCartney formed the band "Wings," which stayed together 10 years, longer than "The Beatles." With "Wings," McCartney had No. 1 hits with "My Love" in 1973 and "Silly Love Songs" in 1976. During the '90s, McCartney came out with his first classical recording as well as a techno album. He also focused on "The Beatles'" "Anthology." McCartney's largely acoustic "Flaming Pie" debuted on the U.S. and U.K. charts at No. 2 in 1997. McCartney's numerous honours include more than 80 gold records, a 1997 knighthood and being named "the Composer of the Millennium" in a 1999 BBC poll.
In 1965, British composer and conductor George Melachrino, one of the first to use a mass string orchestra to create mood music, died at age 55. Melachrino made more than 50 LPs in the 1950s, most of them released by RCA in North America. Many of them bore evocative titles like "Music For Dining" and "Music For Two."
In 1966, "River Deep - Mountain High" by Ike and Tina Turner entered the British charts, getting as high as No. 3. But the record did so poorly in the U.S. that the producer, Phil Spector, temporarily retired from the music business in disgust. He did not make another record for three years.
In 1977, Johnny Rotten of the "Sex Pistols" was slashed on his face and hands by knife-wielding youths on a London street. They objected to the "Pistols'" anti-monarchist song "God Save the Queen." The next day, another member of the "Sex Pistols," Paul Cook, was beaten by a gang armed with iron pipes.
In 1980, "The Blues Brothers" movie opened in the U.S. and Canada. Among the music stars making cameo appearances were Ray Charles, Aretha Franklin and two former members of "Booker T. and the MG's," Steve Cropper and Donald (Duck) Dunn.
In 1980, western swing musician Paul Howard died at age 71. His band, "The Arkansas Cotton Pickers," was a fixture on the Grand Ole Opry in the 1940s.
In 1987, singer Luther Vandross cancelled two sold out shows in Phoenix to protest the Arizona governor's decision to rescind the holiday honouring slain civil rights leader Martin Luther King.
In 1988, Bruce Springsteen was a surprise guest at an anti-racism music festival in Paris. He appeared alone on stage, playing an acoustic guitar. The concert linked the French capital with New York and Dakar, Senegal, for nine hours of music.
In 1988, "Depeche Mode" sold out the 75,000-seat Rose Bowl in Pasadena, Calif. The concert was chronicled in the D.A. Pennebaker film "Depeche Mode 101."
In 1988, 500 rowdy youths pelted organizers of an outdoor rock concert near the Berlin Wall with bottles and stones. Two policemen were injured and eight youths arrested. The trouble started after the artists, including Nina Hagen, refused demands for encores.
In 1988, Sallie Martin, known as "the mother of gospel music," died in Chicago at age 92. She teamed up with the Reverend Thomas Dorsey in 1932, and together they performed throughout the American South.
In 1992, violence erupted after Boston police halted a music and comedy show at City Hall Plaza. Sixteen people were hurt and 18 arrested when hundreds of people rampaged through the neighbourhood, smashing windows and vandalizing stores. Police called off the free concert featuring "Mr. Big," Meli'sa Morgan and Stacy Earl, fearing the crowd of 20,000 was getting out of hand.
In 1992, Australian singer-dancer-songwriter Peter Allen died in a San Diego-area hospital of an AIDS-related illness. He was 48. Allen wrote such hits for other artists as "I Honestly Love You" for Olivia Newton-John and the Oscar-winning "Arthur's Theme" for Christopher Cross. But he was also responsible for one of the biggest flops in Broadway history, the 1988 musical "Legs Diamond."
In 1993, A&M Records chairman Jerry Moss and vice-chairman Herb Alpert announced they were leaving the company they founded more than 30 years earlier. They had sold A&M in 1990 to Polygram for about $500 million. Moss and Alpert founded the label in the garage of Alpert's Los Angeles home in 1962.
In 1994, hundreds of fans jammed a downtown Montreal street to see the world premiere of the Peter Gabriel concert film "Secret World" on a giant outdoor screen.
In 1998, soul singer Curtis Mayfield had his right leg amputated below the knee. The operation, in Atlanta, became necessary after doctors were unable to cure an infection. Mayfield had been paralyzed from the neck down since a 1990 accident in which lighting equipment fell on him during a Brooklyn, N.Y., concert. He died Dec. 26, 1999 at age 57.
In 2009, the Songwriters Hall of Fame inducted Jon Bon Jovi and Richie Sambora of "Bon Jovi", "Crosby, Stills and Nash," Felix Cavaliere and Eddie Brigati of "The Young Rascals." Roger Cook and Roger Greenaway were also inducted. The Hall also bestowed its Towering Song Award on "Moon River." Andy Williams, who popularized the song, accepted the award. The song was written by Henry Mancini and Johnny Mercer in 1961 and won the Best Original Song Oscar for its use in "Breakfast at Tiffany's."
In 2009, a retrial of the first U.S. file-sharing case to go to trial ended with the same result, finding Jammie Thomas-Rasset to have violated music copyrights. She was ordered to pay recording companies $1.92 million, or $80,000 per song. When a different federal jury heard her case in 2007, it hit her with only a $222,000 judgment. In January 2010, a judge reduced the fine to $54,000.
In 2010, John Lennon's handwritten lyrics to "The Beatles" classic "A Day in the Life" sold at Sotheby's auction house for US$1.2 million. The double-sided sheet of paper features Lennon's edits and corrections in his own hand — in black felt marker and blue ball point pen, with a few annotations in red ink.
In 2010, pop singer Lady Gaga committed a no-no when she visited the New Yankees clubhouse after a loss. She talked her way past security and reportedly drank whisky while wearing a bikini bottom and a pinstriped jersey that was unbuttoned to reveal her bra. Her antics angered Yankees management.
In 2011, Clarence Clemons, the larger-than-life saxophone player for the "E Street Band" who was one of the key influences in Bruce Springsteen's life and music through four decades, died after being hospitalized about a week earlier following a stroke at his home in Singer Island, Fla. "The Big Man" was 69.
In 2011, Grammy-award winning singer Amy Winehouse was heavily booed in Belgrade, Serbia, for arriving almost an hour late before stumbling to the stage and appearing unable to remember the lyrics to her songs. The next day, the rest of her 12-stop European tour was cancelled. (She was found dead in her London home on July 23 after publicly struggling for years with drug and alcohol issues.)
In 2012, Manitoba-born singer-songwriter Tom Cochrane was given a key to the City of Winnipeg.
In 2013, country singer Slim Whitman, famous for his signature yodel, died of heart failure at age 89. His career began in the late 1940s, and his tenor falsetto and ebony moustache and sideburns became global trademarks.
In 2013, after 43 years, "Black Sabbath" finally achieved their first No. 1 album in the U.S. when "13" debuted atop the Billboard 200 Albums chart.
In 2013, 16-year-old country singer Danielle Bradbery was crowned the winner of NBC's "The Voice" in the Season Four finale.
In 2015, new inductees into the Songwriters Hall of Fame included country stars Toby Keith and Bobby Braddock, the late Chicago bluesman Willie Dixon, the Grateful Dead songwriting team of Robert Hunter and the late Jerry Garcia, pop and stage star Cyndi Lauper and rock composer and performer Linda Perry.
In 2016, Attrell Cordes (a.k.a. Prince Be), who formed the hip-hop duo P.M. Dawn with his brother Jarrett Cordes (a.k.a. DJ Minutemix), died at age 46. He had been suffering from renal kidney disease. Their best-known song was their 1991 No. 1 hit "Set Adrift on Memory Bliss."
In 2017, at the iHeartRadio MMVAs in Toronto, Indigenous group A Tribe Called Red won video of the year for "R.E.D.,'' Shawn Mendes won pop video of the year for "Mercy,'' and PARTYNEXTDOOR won best new Canadian artist. Drake won Canadian single of the year for "One Dance." Justin Bieber took the Fan Fave Artist/Group award.
In 2018, 20-year-old troubled rapper-singer XXXTentacion was fatally shot during an apparent robbery while sitting in the driver's seat of his luxury electric sports car as he left an upscale motor sports dealership in Deerfield Beach, Fla. Two suspects were later arrested.
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The Canadian Press