Today in Music History: Hank Williams' birthdate
September 17, 2015
History Highlight:
Country music legend Hank Williams was born in Butler County, Ala., today in 1923. Regarded as one of the most significant country music artists in history, Williams recorded 35 singles (five released posthumously) that would place in the Top 10 of the Billboard Country & Western Best Sellers chart, including 11 that ranked number one. The songs Williams wrote and recorded have been covered by numerous artists and have been hits in various genres including pop, gospel and blues. For his outstanding work, Hank Williams has been inducted into multiple music halls of fame.
Also, Today In:
1931 - The first long-playing record, a 331⁄3 rpm recording, was demonstrated at the Savoy Plaza Hotel in New York by RCA Victor. Given the high price of compatible record players, which started around $95 (about $1140 in today's dollars), the LP wasn't revived until 1948.
1967 - The Doors appeared on Ed Sullivan's Sunday-night variety program. Sullivan asked Jim Morrison to omit or alter the lyric, "Girl, we couldn't get much higher" in "Light My Fire." Morrison, to his credit, ignored Sullivan's request. As a result, however, the Doors were not invited back to the program.
1969 - Media on both sides of the Atlantic were running stories that Paul McCartney was dead. He was supposedly killed in a car crash in Scotland on Nov. 9, 1966, and that a double had been taking his place for public appearances ever since. It turned out that Paul and his then-girlfriend Jane Asher were on vacation in Kenya at the time of the purported crash. That, and the fact that Paul McCartney is alive proved the stories incorrect.
1978 - The video for Queen's single "Bicycle Race" was filmed at Wimbledon Stadium in south London. It featured 65 naked female professional models racing around the stadium's track on bicycles that had been rented for the film shoot. When the rental company found out how the bikes had been used, it reportedly demanded payment to replace all the bicycle seats.
1991 - Rob Tyner, lead singer of the incendiary Detroit band, MC5 ("Kick out the Jams, Mo-fos") died of a heart attack.
1996 - Björk avoided a potentially deadly run-in with a dangerous package. Miami police alerted Scotland Yard after discovering the body of stalker Ricardo Lopez, who had made a video of himself constructing an acid-spraying bomb, which he mailed to Björk's London home before killing himself. Detectives in London intercepted and destroyed the package.
2011 - Adele went to No. 1 on the U.S. singles chart with "Someone Like You."
Other Birthdays:
Ned's Atomic Dustbin singer Jonn Penney is 47.
Panic! at the Disco bassist Jonathan Jacob Walker is 30.