15 JUNE
Featured Events
2017 Jay-Z becomes the first rapper inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame.
2016 Jimmy Page takes the stand in a trial where he is accused of stealing part of the song "Taurus" for the intro to "Stairway To Heaven." Led Zeppelin played on the same bills with the band Spirit, who performed "Taurus" in their sets, but Page says he never heard that song before writing "Stairway." The jury rules in favor of Led Zeppelin.
1999 After a seven-year recording hiatus, Santana release the album Supernatural, which goes to #1 thanks to hit singles like "Smooth," "Maria Maria," and "Put Your Lights On." It's their first chart-topping album in 28 years.More
1996 The Beastie Boys host the first Tibetan Freedom Concert, with performers that include Sonic Youth, Smashing Pumpkins and John Lee Hooker. About 100,000 attend the two shows, raising money for the Milarepa Fund.More
1989 Nirvana's debut album, Bleach, is released, with a cover tune as its lead single.More
1986 At Giants Stadium in New Jersey, The Police headline the last concert on the Conspiracy of Hope tour, which benefits Amnesty International. They have plans to record an album, but scrap them after drummer Stewart Copeland is injured in a polo match. The trio does not tour again until 2007.
1967 Peter Green leaves John Mayall's Bluesbreakers to form Fleetwood Mac. He hires Mick Fleetwood, but it takes John McVie four months to leave The Bluesbreakers and join the band named after him.
15 JUNE
In Music History
2024 110,905 fans see George Strait perform at Kyle Field, the football stadium on the campus of Texas A&M, setting a record for largest paid crowd at a US non-festival concert. The previous record holder was Grateful Dead, who drew 107,019 to their 1977 show in Englishtown, New Jersey. Strait's record doesn't last long: Zach Bryan breaks it in 2025 when he headlines the first concert ever held at Michigan Stadium (the "Big House"), the largest stadium in America.
2017 Shania Twain releases "Life's About To Get Good," her first single in five years.
2014 American Top 40 host (and voice of Shaggy on Scooby Doo) Casey Kasem dies at age 82.
2013 Roger LaVern (keyboardist for The Tornados) dies at age 75.
2012 The conservative radio and TV personality Glenn Beck announces plans for launching a competitor to the popular TV series Glee, which revolves around a high school glee club with many musical numbers. Beck, incensed at the show's liberal portrayal of issues such as homosexuality and bullying, tells a Faith & Freedom Coalition conference in Washington that the left "won't know what hit them" when he launches his own conservative version of the show. The show never materializes.
2008 Lionel Richie is given a TV Land Icon Award by the cable network.
2007 Ferlin Huskey undergoes leg surgery in a Springfield, Missouri, hospital to improve his circulation.
2005 Christopher Nolan's Batman origin story Batman Begins, starring Christian Bale as the caped crusader, opens in US theaters. It marks the first collaboration between the director and film composer Hans Zimmer, who continue to work together on the rest of The Dark Knight trilogy, as well as the sci-fi films Inception (2010) and Interstellar (2014), and the war movie Dunkirk (2017).
1999 Peso Pluma, whose music combines corridos and hip-hop, is born Hassan Emilio Kabande Laija in Zapopan, Mexico. His stage name means "featherweight" in English, a reference to his slight build.
1996 Ella Fitzgerald dies of complications from diabetes at age 79.
1996 Aurora is born Aurora Aksnes in Bergen, Norway.
1995 Five years after their successful debut After the Rain, Nelson release their second album, Because They Can, which tanks.More
1991 MC Hammer kicks off his Please Hammer, Don't Hurt 'Em world tour in Louisville, Kentucky. About 70 people, who perform various duties on stage, are in the entourage. Rolling Stone reports that Hammer is a taskmaster, fining dancers for missing steps and insisting that everyone go directly to their hotel rooms after shows.
1991 Paula Abdul hits #1 in America with the ballad "Rush, Rush," her fifth chart-topper. A young Keanu Reeves is in the video.
1990 At Lake City Concert Hall, in Seattle, Washington, bassist Ben Shepherd plays his first show with Soundgarden.
The Lion King Roars Into Theaters
1994The Disney film The Lion King hits theaters. A runaway hit, the movie takes in over $300 million in 1994, second only to Forrest Gump. The soundtrack goes Diamond, meaning over 10 million copies sold - a record for the soundtrack to an animated film.
The key songs in the film - "Circle of Life," "I Just Can't Wait to Be King," "Hakuna Matata" and "Can You Feel the Love Tonight" - are written by Elton John without his usual songwriting partner, Bernie Taupin. Taking on the lyrics is Tim Rice, whose CV includes music from Evita, Jesus Christ Superstar and Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat. This collaboration has enough knights to fill one side of a chessboard, as both Elton John and Tim Rice had earned knighthood in England. When the Academy Awards rolls around, three of the five slots in the Song of the Year category are taken up by Lion King tunes, with "Can You Feel the Love Tonight" winning (Elton performs the song at the ceremony; "Hakuna Matata" and "Circle of Life" are the other nominees). Elton takes a shine to "Circle of Life," considering it the best of the bunch and including it in many of his setlists. The film has a huge impact on Elton John, who expands his fanbase to a younger generation and delves into work on musicals, taking gigs working on Billy Elliot and Aida. The film becomes the biggest traditionally animated movie of all time and gives rise to a lavish musical production in 1997 that would become a Broadway staple.
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