May 18th: The Biggest Music Headlines

2019
R&B singer Melvin Edmonds died at the age of 65. He was a member of the group After 7 and the brother of Kenny ‘Babyface’ Edmonds. After 7 scored the hits ‘Can’t Stop,’ ‘Ready or Not’ and ‘Heat of the Moment.’

2019
A sweater worn by Kurt Cobain during the singer’s last photo-shoot with Nirvana sold for $75,000 at a New York auction. Also sold for $23,000 was Nirvana’s handwritten set list from an April 1990 concert in Washington, D.C., which Cobain wrote with black marker on a paper plate. Cobain had eaten some pizza before the show and preceded to write the set list on the plate he had been eating his pizza on.

2017
American musician, singer and songwriter Chris Cornell died suddenly in Detroit after performing at a show with Soundgarden. Cornell was known for his role as one of the architects of the 1990s grunge movement, and for his near four octave vocal range as well as his powerful vocal belting technique. He released four solo studio albums as well as working with Audioslave and Temple of the Dog.

2017
It was announced that The Killers’ ‘Mr Brightside’ was the most-streamed song released before 2010 in the UK. The 2004 single was streamed 26 million times last year, beating any other song released before 2010, according to music industry body the BPI.

2012
Rihanna makes her big-screen acting debut playing a naval weapons specialist in the action/sci-fi movie Battleship. It earns her a Razzie for Worst Supporting Actress

2011
John Lennon’s handwritten lyrics for the 1967 Beatles song ‘Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds’ sold for $237,132 (£145,644) at an auction in the US. The sale of the sheet, which featured the song’s third verse and the opening words to ‘She’s Leaving Home’, took place at the Saban Theatre in Beverly Hills. Both songs feature on the 1967 album Sgt Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band. It was speculated the song was about the drug LSD, however, The Beatles denied this, with Lennon saying the inspiration had come from a picture his son Julian had drawn of a classmate named Lucy Vodden – who died of the immune system disease Lupus in 2009.

2008
Ting Tings scored their first UK No.1 single with ‘That’s Not My Name’. Taken from the Manchester duo’s debut studio album ‘We Started Nothing’.

2007
Amy Winehouse marries Blake Fielder at a secret ceremony in Miami.

2004
Clint Warwick the original bass player with The Moody Blues died from liver disease at the age of 63. Clint left the band in 1966 after playing on their only number one hit, ‘Go Now’.

https://youtu.be/6Vt4lLdz7UE

2001
The movie Shrek is released, reviving the songs “Hallelujah” (sung on the soundtrack by Rufus Wainwright) and “I’m a Believer” (performed by Smash Mouth in the rave-up at the end of the film).

2000
Madonna’s boyfriend Guy Ritchie was arrested after attacking a fan outside the superstar’s London home. Ritchie was said to have kicked and punched a male fan after the couple returned home from a night out.

1997
Blur won pop music’s equivalent of the FA Cup, the Music Industry Soccer Six. The band’s win at Fulham’s FC’s ground Craven Cottage saw them beating off competition from Robbie Williams, My Life Story and The Prodigy.

1996
American singer, songwriter, musician Kevin Gilbert died. The coroner listed the cause of death as “asphyxia due to partial suspension hanging” and concluded the death was accidental. He was a member of Giraffe, and worked with Sheryl Crow. He co-wrote the 1994 Crow UK No. 4 hit ‘All I Want To Do.’

1993
Janet Jackson released Janet. The album’s first week sales of 350,000 was the highest for a female artist at that time. The album went on to sell over 14 million copies worldwide. It’s one of only seven albums to have Six Top Ten Hits in the Billboard Hot 100 charts.

1991
Bananarama release Pop Life, their first album without bandmate Siobhan Fahey, who left the group in 1988 amid tensions over their pop-oriented image. It’s also their last release as a trio. Jacquie O’Sullivan replaces Fahey on the album, but leaves later that year due to the press constantly comparing her with the former ‘Nana.

1985
Simple Minds were at No.1 on the US singles chart with ‘Don’t You Forget About Me’, (a No. 7 hit in the UK). Written by Keith Forsey (who won an Oscar for “Flashdance… What a Feeling”) and Steve Schiff (guitarist and songwriter from the Nina Hagen band), the track was featured in the 1985 American teen drama film The Breakfast Club.

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1980
23-year-old Joy Division singer and guitarist Ian Curtis took his own life at home in Macclesfield, England. The artist, who struggled with depression and epilepsy, left a note that said, ‘At this very moment, I wish I were dead. I just can’t cope anymore.’ Joy Division released the critically acclaimed debut album Unknown Pleasures in 1979, and recorded their follow-up ‘Closer’ in 1980.

1975
Five times married US country singer, Tammy Wynette was at No.1 on the UK singles chart with ‘Stand By Your Man.’ Originally released as a single in 1968 in the USA. It proved to be the most successful record of Wynette’s career and is one of the most covered songs in the history of country music.

1975
The Bay City Rollers appear at BBC Radio “Fun Day” at the Mallory Park racetrack in Leicestershire, England, where they are set to perform on an island in the middle of a lake. When throngs of fans try to swim to the Rollers, mayhem ensues and they never get to perform.

1974
Ray Stevens started a three week run at No.1 on the US singles chart with the novelty song ‘The Streak’ which capitalized on the then popular craze of streaking. Also No.1 in the UK.

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1968
The first Miami Pop event took place with an estimated 100,000 people attending the concert, which was promoted by Richard O’Barry & Michael Lang (later famous as the promoter of Woodstock). Bands featured at the festival included Steppenwolf, The Jimi Hendrix Experience, The Mothers of Invention, Blue Cheer, Chuck Berry, The Blues Image, Pacific Gas and Electric, Three Dog Night and the Crazy World of Arthur Brown.

1968
Archie Bell & the Drells hit #1 in America with the funk-tacular “Tighten Up.”

https://youtu.be/uN7vm-k-AaA

1967
The Beatles were selected to represent the UK for the first-ever global-wide satellite broadcast. The group agreed to be shown in the studio recording a song written especially for the occasion, scheduled for June 25. John Lennon wrote ‘All You Need is Love’ which was thought to sum up the 1967 ‘summer of love’ and The Beatles’ sympathies. With the satellite broadcast being broadcast to many non-English-speaking countries, the BBC asked The Beatles to ‘keep it simple’.

1967
Pink Floyd started recording their forthcoming single ‘See Emily Play’ at Sound Techniques Studios, Chelsea, London. Syd Barrett was inspired to write See Emily Play, by the ‘looning about’ of the early Pink Floyd fan Emily Young, (who is now a renowned sculptor). Guitarist David Gilmour, playing gigs in France with his own band in that period, visited Floyd in the studio during a trip to London.

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1966
The Castiles (with sixteen-year-old Bruce Springsteen on vocals), made their first recordings at Mr Music Inc in Brick Town, New Jersey. They cut two Springsteen songs, ‘Baby I’ and ‘That’s What You Get’. The songs were cut directly to disc, of which seven or eight test pressings of the studio takes were made.

1966
During his 1966 world tour, Bob Dylan and Robbie Robertson from The Band were filmed singing several songs in a hotel room in Glasgow, Scotland, the footage turning up in the film Eat The Document. The film was originally commissioned for the ABC television series Stage ’66, but after Dylan edited the film himself ABC rejected it as ‘incomprehensible for a mainstream audience’.

1964
A riot broke out in Hamilton, Scotland during a Rolling Stones UK tour when over 4,000 fans with forged tickets gate-crashed the bands gig at the Chantingall Hotel.

1964
The Animals record the folk song “House Of The Rising Sun” in a matter of minutes at a London studio. A few months later, it becomes a huge hit, going to #1 in both the UK and US.

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