23 APRIL
In Music History
1940 Doo-wop singer Dale Houston (of Dale & Grace) is born Robert Dale Houston in Seminary, Mississippi.
1939 '60s pop singer Ray Peterson is born in Denton, Texas.
1564 William Shakespeare, whose works inspire centuries of song lyrics, is born in Stratford-upon-Avon, England. (The date is a best estimate; it's known that he was baptized on April 26.)
Ramones Debut Album Creates The Punk Sound
1976The Ramones release their self-titled debut album, a punk rock landmark filled with frantic 2-minute songs like "Blitzkrieg Bop" and "Beat On The Brat."
Read more23 APRIL
Featured Events
2016 Bruce Springsteen salutes the recently deceased Prince by opening his show in Brooklyn with a rendition of "Purple Rain" (Nils Lofgren takes the guitar solo). The E Street Band wears purple for the show, deviating from their usual black.
2015 System Of A Down play the Armenian capitol of Yerevan in their first concert in that country. The band, which is of Armenian descent, is raising awareness of the Armenian genocide, which began 100 years earlier.
2005 YouTube launches. It works so well that Google can't beat it (they try with something called Google Video), so in 2006 they buy it. It eventually becomes the most popular place to hear music for free.
2002 Kenny Chesney releases his sixth studio album, No Shoes, No Shirt, No Problems. Featuring five Top 10 country singles, including the hit title track, it's his first album to top both the Country and Billboard 200 charts.More
1995 The Sunday Times of London breaks the story that a welder in Liverpool named Peter Hodgson found a reel of Beatles material in his attic. The recordings turn out to be legit, as Hodgson's father had loaned the recorder to Paul McCartney. After hearing the recordings, McCartney buys the reel and uses some of it on the Anthology collection. Songs include the Lennon/McCartney original "Hello Little Girl" and the Ray Charles cover "Hallelujah, I Love Her So."
1981 Jerry Lee Lewis and Carl Perkins, who are in Germany appearing at different festivals, join Johnny Cash on stage in Stuttgart for a performance that is recorded and released as the album The Survivors. The trio toured together back in 1957.
1971 The Rolling Stones release Sticky Fingers, which includes "Brown Sugar," "Wild Horses" and "Can't You Hear Me Knocking?" It's the first album released on their own label, Rolling Stones Records.
1936 Roy Orbison is born in Vernon, Texas. He has a run of hits in the early '60s that include "Crying," "In Dreams" and "(Oh) Pretty Woman," and in the '80s he makes a remarkable comeback when he's championed by the likes of George Harrison, Bruce Springsteen and Tom Petty.
1616 William Shakespeare dies at 52. His play Romeo and Juliet becomes an archetype for songs about love that ends in tragedy.
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