Today In Rock & Roll History

Minnesota Public Radio
TODAY IN MUSIC HISTORY: ROCK AND ROLL IS … BORN?
Posted at 6:34 AM on September 14, 2012 by Jade (0 Comments)
Filed under: Music History

Birthdays:

Amy Winehouse would have been 29 today. She was found dead in her home July 2011.

Nas is 39 today.

Today In:

1968 – Roy Orbison‘s house in Nashville burnt down, his two eldest sons both died in the blaze. Orbison was on tour in the UK at the time of the accident.

1968 – Pete Townshend of The Who announced his plans to write a rock opera called Tommy about a “deaf, dumb and blind boy.”

1985 – MTV’s Awards show debuted. Bette Midler and Dan Aykroyd co-hosted the show. Herbie Hancock was the big winner, winning five awards for his “Rockit” video. However, Madonna stole the show with her performance of “Like A Virgin” in which she rolled around on the stage in a wedding dress.

1988 – Prince played the first night of the North American leg on his Lovesexy 84-date world tour at the Met Center, Minneapolis.

1991 – David Bowie and his band Tin Machine released their second album and kicked off their first and only tour.

1999 – The Strokes made their live debut at The Spiral in New York.

History Highlight:z

Today in 1955, Little Richard recorded the song “Tutti Frutti,” his first major hit record. According to Wikipedia: “With its opening cry of “A-wop-bop-a-loo-mop-a-wop-bam-boom!” (a verbal imitation of a drum pattern that Little Richard had heard) and its hard-driving sound and wild lyrics, it became not only a model for many future Little Richard songs, but also a model for rock and roll itself. In 2007, a panel of renowned recording artists voted “Tutti Frutti” number 1 on Mojo’s The Top 100 Records That Changed The World, hailing the recording as “the sound of the birth of rock and roll.” In 2010, the US Library of Congress National Recording Registry added the recording to its registry, stating that the hit, with its original a cappella introduction, heralded a new era in music.”

Share A little Divinity

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.