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What Happened on the May 9th in Music History
2020
Little Richard died of bone cancer at the age of 87. He had his biggest hits in the 1950s and was known for his exuberant performances and flamboyant outfits. With the likes of Chuck Berry and Elvis, he was one of the handful of US acts who mixed blues, R&B and gospel that led to the evolution of rock ‘n’ roll. He sold more than 30 million records worldwide with hits including ‘Good Golly Miss Molly’, ‘Lucille’, ‘Tutti Frutti’ and ‘Long Tall Sally’.
2017
Swiss-born Italian record producer, composer, musician and DJ Robert Miles died in Ibiza, Spain at the age of 47 after a 9-month battle with stage 4 metastatic cancer. He was best known for his 1996 hit ‘Children’ which reached No.1 in more than 12 countries.
2014
Hunter Hayes breaks the record for most concerts performed in different cities in a single day when he plays 10 shows in 24 hours.
2013
David Bowie’s latest video, which starred Gary Oldman and Marion Cotillard, was temporarily pulled from YouTube over its graphic content. ‘The Next Day’ featured heavy religious imagery, including Cotillard bleeding from stigmata marks. The video sees Bowie performing in a basement bar, surrounded by religious figures, while Oldman, dressed as a priest, punches a beggar before dancing with a prostitute, played by Oscar-winner Cotillard. YouTube admitted making the “wrong call” in removing the video, and reinstated it with an adult content warning.
2008
Foxy Brown avoided a further spell in prison after pleading guilty in a New York court to menacing her neighbor with a BlackBerry phone. The 28-year-old rapper admitted hitting Arlene Raymond during an argument over the volume of her car stereo last July. The incident landed the star in prison for violating the terms of her probation on a separate assault charge.
2003
The Eagles, trimmed to a four-man lineup (Glenn Frey, Don Henley, Joe Walsh and Timothy B. Schmit) after parting ways with Don Felder, start their Farewell I tour in Richmond, Virginia, the title a mocking reference to the many “farewell” tours that aren’t really. They play 168 dates on the tour over a span of three years.
1998
Jimmy Page appeared on US TV’s ‘Saturday Night Live’ with rapper Sean ‘Puffy’ Combs and performed ‘Come With Me’ from the ‘Godzilla’ movie soundtrack. The song sampled the guitar riff from Led Zeppelin’s song ‘Kashmir’.
1998
Brian Wilson plays his first ever solo concert (no Beach Boys) at a show in St. Charles, Illinois.
1992
Bruce Springsteen made his North American network television debut on Saturday Night Live with host Tom Hanks.
1987
Starship started a four-week run at No.1 on the UK singles chart with a song co-written by Albert Hammond and Diane Warren, ‘Nothing’s Gonna Stop Us Now.’ At 48, it made lead singer Grace Slick the oldest female to reach No.1 on the UK chart, (later broken by Cher’s ‘Believe’ in 1999).
1987
The Grateful Dead shoot the video for “Touch Of Grey” after a concert in Monterey, California. After the show, the shoot is set up and the audience brought back in to watch two different performances of the song: one by the band and another by their skeleton likenesses – the “Dead Ringers.” It’s the first music video by the band, and it goes into rotation on MTV, giving the group their first hit single.
1981
Adam and the Ants were at No.1 on the UK singles chart with ‘Stand And Deliver.’ The song enjoyed a five-week run at No.1.
1980
‘I Don’t Like Mondays’ by The Boomtown Rats won the best pop song and outstanding British lyric categories at the 25th Ivor Novello Awards. And Supertramp’s ‘The Logical Song’ won Best Song Musically and Lyrically. Boomtown Rats lead singer Bob Geldoff was inspired to write the song after reading about the tragic shooting spree when 16-year-old Brenda Spencer killed two people and wounded nine others when she fired from her house across the street onto the entrance of San Diego’s Grover Cleveland Elementary School.
1978
Fee Waybill of The Tubes, broke a leg after falling from the stage at the Hammersmith Odeon, London whilst wielding a chainsaw during the bands set. See – Accidents Will Happen.
1974
Bonnie Raitt played two shows at Harvard Square Theatre in Cambridge, Massachusetts; opening act was Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band. Rolling Stone critic John Landau saw Springsteen and wrote ‘I have seen rock & roll’s future and his name is Bruce Springsteen’.
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1974
Bruce Springsteen gets a huge career boost when he opens for Bonnie Raitt at her Boston Arena show. Playing his full two-hour set at Raitt’s insistence (rare for an opening act), Bruce is so impressive that Rolling Stone’s Jon Landau writes in Boston’s The Real Paper, “I saw rock and roll future, and its name is Bruce Springsteen. And on a night when I needed to feel young, he made me feel like I was hearing music for the very first time.” Landau went on to become Springsteen’s manager and producer.
1973
Mick Jagger added $150,000 of his own money to the $350,000 by The Rolling Stones January benefit concert for victims of the Nicaraguan earthquake.
1970
Guess Who started a three-week run at No.1 on the US singles chart with ‘American Woman’, it was the group’s sixth Top 30 hit and only chart topper. The song was born by accident when guitarist Randy Bachman was playing a heavy riff on stage after he had broken a string, the other members joined in on the jam. A fan in the audience who had recorded the gig on tape presented it to the group after the show and they developed it into a full song.
1969
Beatles guitarist George Harrison’s experimental album Electronic Sound was released on Zapple records.
1967
Sandie Shaw was at No.1 on the UK singles chart with ‘Puppet On A String’. This week’s two highest new entries were Jimi Hendrix with ‘The Wind Cries Mary’ and The Kinks ‘Waterloo Sunset’.
1966
The Doors played at the Whisky A Go Go, West Hollywood, California auditioning for the position of the venue’s house band.
1965
During a UK tour Bob Dylan played the first of two sold out nights at London’s Royal Albert Hall. All four members of The Beatles were in the audience.
1964
Gene Vincent and the Shouts appeared at The Rhodes Centre, Bishop’s Gate, England. The poster advertised that the first 50 girls would be admitted free; tickets cost six shillings and six pence, ($0.94).
1964
Chuck Berry began his first ever UK tour at The Astoria Theatre, London, supported by The Animals, The Swinging Blue Jeans, Karl Denver and the Nashville Teens.
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1964
Louis Armstrong went to No.1 on the US singles chart with ‘Hello Dolly’ making him the oldest artist to hit No.1 at the age of 62. The song, which marked Armstrong’s biggest-selling single, remained on the Billboard Hot 100 for 22 weeks – the longest stint for any track that year.
1963
The Rolling Stones sign their first management contract with Andrew Loog Oldham’s management company Impact, agreeing to license their UK output to Decca
1959
UK music paper Melody Maker introduced a Juke Box Top 20 Chart compiled from 200 Juke Boxes around the UK.
1936
The front page story of Melody Maker: “B.B.C. Appoints Anti-Song Plugging Official.”
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