Pick a Day

Music History Events: Odds And Ends

July 8, 1998 The Smithsonian and Library of Congress agree to house the music and film archives of Frank Sinatra.

July 7, 1998 Along with his financial partner Don Barden, Michael Jackson announces plans to build an entertainment complex in Detroit called "The Majestic Kingdom." It never materializes.

October 30, 1997 At the Martin Beck Theatre, a play revival titled The Cherry Orchard opens.

September 30, 1997 Randy Travis becomes the first artist to ink a deal with DreamWorks Records Nashville. His signing instantly raises the stock of the new country label.

September 30, 1997 U2 cause controversy during its show in Tel Aviv, Israel, with frontman Bono appealing for the release from imprisonment of nuclear secrets traitor Mordechai Vanunu.

August 11, 1997 Sonny West, Red West, Lamar Fike and Marty Lacker, four of the biggest members of Elvis' "Memphis Mafia," recall the King in a one-time-only webchat.

April 2, 1997 After 32 years, Joni Mitchell is reunited with her first daughter, Kilauren Gibb. Joni gave the child up for adoption at the start of her career.

September 23, 1996 Agnetha Faltskog, one of ABBA's two female leads, publishes her biography, As I Am.

April 29, 1996 Phil Spector calls off a planned project to produce Celine Dion when they can't agree to terms.

March 12, 1996 Nancy Sinatra gives her famous white go-go boots, the ones that were made for walkin', to the Beverly Hills Hard Rock Cafe.

December 1, 1995 An auction of his memorabilia nets Frank Sinatra over two million dollars.

September 22, 1995 Time Warner and Turner Broadcasting System agree to a $7.5 million merger.

September 14, 1995 Paul McCartney's handwritten lyrics for The Beatles' "Getting Better" fetch $249,000 at Sotheby's in London.

August 17, 1995 Microsoft buys the rights to The Rolling Stones' 1981 smash "Start Me Up" to use as the theme for their Windows 95 rollout.

April 27, 1994 San Francisco's legendary rock venue the Fillmore Auditorium reopens with performances by The Smashing Pumpkins and American Music Club.

March 22, 1994 Ted Nugent, always a straight arrow, makes a PSA warning kids of the dangers of abusing inhalants.

October 16, 1993 Aretha Franklin sings the US national anthem in Toronto before Game 1 of World Series between the Blue Jays and the visiting Philadelphia Phillies.

August 26, 1993 Apple Records wins the bidding for a rare recording of the Beatles playing "Kansas City" and "Some Other Guy" at the Cavern Club in Liverpool in 1962, paying £16,000 for the acetate disc.

August 3, 1993 Boston Ventures, the group to whom Berry Gordy had sold Motown in 1988 for $61 million, sells the label and its holdings to Dutch conglomerate Polygram for $325 million.

June 7, 1993 Ground is broken for the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum in Cleveland.

November 3, 1992 Grateful Dead tell stunned fans that they will not play their traditional New Year's Eve concert in San Francisco.

August 27, 1992 John Lennon's original written lyrics for "A Day In The Life" fetch $87,000 at a Sotheby's auction.

November 18, 1990 Paul McCartney's birth certificate is auctioned off for $18,000.

April 25, 1990 A London auction house sells the Fender Stratocaster on which Jimi Hendrix played the US national anthem at Woodstock for $295,000.

March 8, 1990 Rolling Stone calls Jefferson Airplane's disastrous new comeback album Most Unwanted Comeback of the Year.

February 17, 1990 Emma Anderson admits in an interview that her band Lush is the "Most hated band in London."

January 28, 1990 Aaron Neville performs the US national anthem at Superbowl XXIV in New Orleans, Louisiana. Halftime entertainment is a salute to the city, with local marching bands performing along with Pete Fountain, Irma Thomas and Doug Kershaw.

July 28, 1989 Anne Murray opens the Anne Murray Centre, a multimedia museum of her career, in her hometown of Springhill, Nova Scotia.

June 12, 1989 The Elvis Presley Autoland Museum, a section of Graceland devoted to twenty of the King's vintage cars, opens to the public.

February 7, 1989 The Georgia State Representative Billy Randall introduces a bill to make Little Richard's "Tutti Frutti" the official state rock song. It doesn't pass.