Keefer

Keefer

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ON THIS DAY IN MUSIC HISTORY: 3.7

1975 - David Bowie released his ninth studio album Young Americans which contained his first number one hit in the U.S. "Fame". Surrounding himself with first-rate sessionmen, Bowie comes up with a set of songs that approximate the sound of Philly soul and disco. Bowie gives the record its own distinctive flavor, and its plastic, robotic soul helped inform generations of synthetic British soul. Interesting fact: He usually recorded his vocals after midnight because he heard that's when Frank Sinatra recorded most of his vocals,

1980 - The Loretta Lynn biopic Coal Miner's Daughter debuts in theaters. Sissy Spacek, who does her own singing, wins an Oscar for her portrayal of the country singer. Beverly D'Angelo costars as Lynn's mentor Patsy Cline.

The country singer handpicked the Carrie actress to portray her in Coal Miner's Daughter, which chronicles Lynn's rise to fame from her humble beginnings in backwoods Kentucky. Despite an earlier foray into music (under the name Rainbo), Spacek couldn't sing - at least not like Loretta. "I remember my husband would shut all the doors when I was rehearsing and my dog would howl — it was really not pretty," Spacek recalled.

1983 – Tears for Fears debut album, The Hurting is released. A daring debut for a pop-oriented band because it was informed by the psychologically wretched family histories of it's makers, Roland Orzabal and Curt Smith -- in an attractive and sellable musical format. The songs are powerful pieces of music, beautifully executed in an almost minimalist style. The work is sometimes uncomfortably personal, but musically compelling enough to bring it back across the decades. Highlights include "Change", "Pale Shelter", and "Mad World", later covered by Gary Jules.

1983 - New Order released 'Blue Monday,' as a 12-inch single through Factory Records. The track went on to become the biggest-selling 12-inch single of all time. The lyrics was written by guitarist/lead singer Bernard Sumner, who copped to being (along with the rest of the band) under the influence of LSD while making the song.

The band took the song's name from an illustration in the Kurt Vonnegut book Breakfast Of Champions, which Stephen Morris was reading. One of its illustrations read: "Goodbye Blue Monday," referring to the invention of the washing machine improving housewives' lives. (Photo credit should read FRED TANNEAU/AFP via Getty Images)

1985 - The song "We Are the World" is released as a single, soon achieving massive chart success all around the world. The song, written by Lionel Richie and Michael Jackson, is recorded for charity to help battle famine in Africa. The supergroup USA for Africa brought together for the recording features a stunning list of big names in music - everyone from Bruce Springsteen and Bob Dylan to Ray Charles, Cyndi Lauper and Dionne Warwick.

Things you might have not known that were revealed in the recently released documentary, The Greatest Night In Pop:

Lionel Richie and Michael Jackson wrote the song in less than 10 days

Prince was supposed to be there, when he didn't show, his line was given to Huey Lewis.

Waylon Jennings walked out. Early on in the night, Stevie Wonder became adamant that they should sing parts of the song in Swahili. This visibly rubbed country singer Waylon Jennings the wrong way. ‘Well, ain’t no good ol’ boy ever sung Swahili. I think I’m outta here’”. It took Bob Geldof and a host of other celebrities to tell Stevie that Swahili was not spoken in Ethiopia in order to keep progressing.

Bob Dylan was unsure how to sing his part. So, Stevie Wonder sat down at a piano and mimicked Bob’s folky vocals with eerie accuracy, showing the singer how he could nail his solo. Bob then steps up to the microphone and nails the line.

The wanted Van Halen to be a part of it, but they were on tour.

2003 - The White Stripes release Seven Nation Army. This song deals with The White Stripes' rising popularity and the negatives that came with it. After White came up with the riff, he devised a storyline in which a protagonist comes into town and all his friends are gossiping about him. "He feels so bad he has to leave town, but you get so lonely you come back," said White. "The song's about gossip. It's about me, Meg and the people we're dating."

When Jack White was a kid, he misheard "Salvation Army" as "Seven Nation Army," which is how he got the title for this song.

Birthdays:

Singer-songwriter Townes Van Zandt was born today in 1944. With an understated voice that quietly overflowed with melancholy, humor, and insight, Townes Van Zandt was an icon of American songwriting. Van Zandt was respected and admired by his contemporaries during his life, particularly for a hot streak of records he recorded in the early '70s that included High, Low and in Between and The Late Great Townes Van Zandt. His legacy would grow after he was gone, with various books and documentary projects examining the tragic beauty that touched both his art and his life.

Arthur Lee, frontman for Love, was born today in 1945. One of the best (one of the first integrated rock groups) West Coast folk-rock/psychedelic bands, Love may have also been the first widely acclaimed cult/underground group. During their brief heyday -- lasting all of three albums -- they drew from Byrds-ish folk-rock, Stones-ish hard rock, blues, jazz, flamenco, and even light orchestral pop to create a heady stew of their own.

Peter Wolf is 78. Best known for his tenure fronting the J. Geils Band, he's also a painter, and was a DJ as well. As for the J. Geils Band, where their contemporaries were influenced by the heavy boogie of British blues-rock and the ear-splitting sonic adventures of psychedelia, the J. Geils Band were a bar band pure and simple, churning out greasy covers of obscure R&B, doo wop, and soul tunes, cutting them with a healthy dose of Stonesy swagger.

Ernie Isley of The Isley Brothers is 72. After joining his brothers, he infused the Isley Brothers with a Jimi Hendrix-like virtuosity that took the veteran R&B group into a more rockin' direction, earning 11 gold and five platinum albums.

On This Day In Music History was sourced, copied, pasted, edited and occasionally woven together with my own crude prose, from This Day in Music, Music This Day, Song Facts, Allmusic and Wikipedia.

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