27 AUGUST
Featured Events
1991 Pearl Jam release their debut album, Ten, which launches them to stardom and puts them in the forefront of the Seattle grunge movement.More
1990 35-year-old Stevie Ray Vaughan dies in a helicopter crash near East Troy, Wisconsin, following a concert at the Alpine Valley Music Theater where earlier in the evening he appeared with Robert Cray, Buddy Guy, Eric Clapton, and his older brother, Jimmie Vaughan.
1989 The BCM Summer Dance Festival kicks off at the Tempodrom in Berlin. The 3-day festival brings together a number of American acts, including the up-and-coming hip-hop groups Stetsasonic, EPMD and UTFO, along with disco mainstays The Village People and R&B legend Bobby Womack.More
1988 Tracy Chapman's self-titled debut album races to #1 in the US as her song "Fast Car" peaks at #6.
1988 As baby boomers soak up the soothing sounds of Kenny G, Yanni and Enya, Billboard introduces the New Age Albums chart. The first #1 is Cristofori's Dream by the pianist David Lanz.
1964 Disney releases Mary Poppins, a Sherman Brothers musical featuring Julie Andrews and Dick Van Dyke. It's the first movie role for Andrews, who is already a Broadway star. Her portrayal of the title character earns her the Academy Award for Best Actress.More
1955 Fats Domino's "Ain't That A Shame" hits #10 in the US, becoming the first R&B song to hit the Top 10 on the Pop chart. Three weeks later, Pat Boone's cover hits #1.
27 AUGUST
In Music History
2024 The bellicose brothers Noel and Liam Gallagher announce an Oasis reunion tour, ending a 15-year hiatus. "The guns have fallen silent," the press release reads. "The stars have aligned."
2018 Weird Al Yankovic receives a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. At the ceremony, he tells the crowd, "My name is gonna be walked on, spit on, and let's face it ... urinated on for generations to come. That's a legacy, my friends."
2017 Kendrick Lamar wins Video of the Year for HUMBLE. at the MTV Video Music Awards, where Taylor Swift debuts her video for "Look What You Made Me Do."More
2013 To celebrate the band's 40th anniversary, Alabama reunites for Alabama & Friends, a tribute album with some of the group's biggest hits sung with contemporary country artists like Kenny Chesney, Toby Keith and Jason Aldean.
2011 In Italy, Phoenix lead singer Thomas Mars marries the director Sofia Coppola - the couple already have two daughters together. Phoenix contributed a song to Coppola's 2003 film Lost in Translation and appear in her 2006 movie Marie Antoinette.
2008 Election '08 fever begins as the Democratic National Convention hits Denver and brings Kanye West, Rage Against The Machine, John Legend and many more to town.
2003 Janis Ian marries her girlfriend, Nashville defense lawyer Patricia Snyder, in Toronto, one of the few places where gay marriages are legal.
2002 Queens Of The Stone Age release their third album, Songs For The Deaf, touted as being so heavy even deaf people can hear it. The drummer is Dave Grohl, taking some time away from Foo Fighters.
1996 Pearl Jam release their fourth album, No Code, which debuts at #1 in the US.
1995 Big Dee Irwin dies of heart failure in Las Vegas, Nevada, at age 63. Recorded a popular version of "Swinging on a Star" with Little Eva.
1992 John Lennon's original written lyrics for "A Day In The Life" fetch $87,000 at a Sotheby's auction.
1992 The Heights, a drama series about a group of working-class youths struggling to form a rock band, premieres on the FOX network. Produced by Aaron Spelling, the short-lived show spawns a #1 single with its theme song, "How Do You Talk To An Angel."
1989 Izzy Stradlin of Guns N' Roses is arrested at the Phoenix airport after urinating on the floor of the plane, apparently upset at having to wait to use the bathroom. His publicist explains that it was Izzy's "way of expressing himself."
1988 20-year-old Kylie Minogue becomes the youngest female artist to land a #1 album in the UK when her debut, Kylie, claims the top spot. Her record stands until 2003, when 18-year-old Avril Lavigne goes to #1 with Let Go.
1987 With the jury deadlocked, a judge declares a mistrial in the case against Dead Kennedys frontman Jello Biafra, who was charged with distributing harmful material to minors because he included a surreal poster of penis art in the band's 1985 album Frankenchrist - the first time a musician has been prosecuted for album art. The trial is a costly one for the Dead Kennedys, who break up soon after.
Rick Rubin Holds A Funeral For The Word "Def"
1993Rick Rubin, deciding the word "def" has been played out now that it has a listing in Webster's Dictionary, changes the name of his label from Def American Recordings to American Recordings and stages a funeral to "bury" poor Def.
The ceremony is officiated by the Reverend Al Sharpton and attended by Tom Petty, Sir Mix-a-Lot, Flea of Red Hot Chili Peppers, and Kerry King of Slayer, all of whom throw items with the Def American logo into a casket that is taken through Hollywood Memorial Park in a procession and buried. "Def died of terminal acceptance," Sharpton says. "We knew it was sick when we could go into offices and see crew-cutted executives refer to something as Def." Def, meaning "cool" or "excellent," had a great run in the '80s, showing up in cutting-edge rap tunes like Run-D.M.C.'s "Rock Box" ("I couldn't wait to demonstrate, all the super def rhymes that I create") and LL Cool J's "Rock The Bells" ("You take a step because it's def"). LL even titled his 1987 album Bigger And Deffer. Rick Rubin launched his transgressive label Def Jam in 1984 and had LL on the roster along with Beastie Boys and Slick Rick. In 1988 he left Def Jam and formed Def American, which had The Black Crowes, Danzig and Sir Mix-a-Lot on board. By 1993, Def had pretty much vanished from hip-hop, and Rubin was ready to rebrand. At the burial, Sharpton says, "To those of us who were proud and defiant over our own language and expressions, this is a sad occasion. It's sad when people do not respect us - it is worse when they steal it and use it to their own end. We now have to invent a whole new term and hope that they do not steal that. We respect and honor Rick and the family for not letting 'Def' just hang out, for not allowing the vultures to suck the blood from its veins, but for properly bringing it here to lay to rest with all the other great innovators, and to officially announce Def's death to the world." In 1994, the Def-less American Recordings puts out albums by Johnny Cash, Pete Droge, The Jayhawks and Danzig.
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