December 19 ~ On This Day in Music

Christmas Music: Johnny Marks

• 1888 ~ Fritz Reiner, Hungarian-born American conductor who was the musical director of the Pittsburgh Symphony, New York Metropolitan Opera and Chicago Symphony. He died in 1963

• 1915 ~ Edith Piaf (Edith Giovanna Gassion), French chanteuse and songwriter.  The Little Sparrow” is regarded by many as France’s greatest female popular singer, Although she sang all her songs in French they were listened to around the world and recognized for the great voice she possessed. Her signature tune “La vie en rose” is our featured video today because even with the poor quality of recording it shows how talented she was.

• 1925 ~ ‘Little’ Jimmy Dickens, Country Music Hall of Famer

• 1928 ~ Galt MacDermot, Composer

• 1935 ~ Bobby Timmons, American jazz pianist

• 1940 ~ Phil Ochs, American folk singer, songwriter and guitarist

• 1941 ~ Maurice White, Singer, drummer, founder of the group Earth, Wind & Fire

• 1944 ~ Alvin Lee, Musician with Ten Years After

• 1944 ~ Zal Yanovsky, Guitarist, singer with The Lovin’ Spoonful

• 1952 ~ Jeff Davis, Bass with Amazing Rhythm Aces

• 1952 ~ Janie Fricke, Singer, Country Music Association Female Vocalist of the Year in 1982 and 1983

• 1957 ~ Meredith Willson’s The Music Man opened at the Majestic Theatre in New York City. The Broadway show starred Robert Preston and had a run of 1,375 shows. It also had 76 trombones and 101 cornets in the band…

• 1960 ~ Neil Sedaka’s Calendar Girl was released on RCA Victor Records. The song became Sedaka’s fourth record to make the charts. Other hits from the guy who made money off of a love song for Carole King (Oh, Carol) include The Diary, Stairway to Heaven, Bad Girl, Next Door to an Angel, Happy Birthday Sweet Sixteen, Laughter in the Rain and Breaking Up is Hard to Do.

• 1960 ~ Frank Sinatra recorded his first session with his very own record company. Frank did Ring-A-Ding-Ding and Let’s Fall in Love for Reprise Records.

• 2000 ~ Milt Hinton, a jazz bassist and photographer called “The Judge” by the jazz greats he worked with and photographed during a 70-year career, died at the age of 90. During his career, Hinton performed with almost every luminary of jazz and popular music, from Louis Armstrong, Cab Calloway, Dizzy Gillespie and John Coltrane to Bing Crosby, Frank Sinatra, Barbra Streisand and Paul McCartney. Hinton also documented his world with a camera, compiling close to 60,000 negatives depicting hundreds of jazz artists and popular musicians on the road, in the studio, backstage and at parties.

• 2001 ~ Bill Bissell, a former University of Washington marching band director who helped create “The Wave”, died in his sleep. He was 70. Bissell directed the Huskies’ band with flair, innovation and humor from 1970 until he retired in 1994. He and former Washington yell leader Robb Weller introduced “The Wave,” in which fans stand with arms raised and cheer section by section, to college football 20 years ago. Bissell directed halftime shows at 14 bowl games, including six Rose Bowls and an Orange Bowl, and was awarded a Citation of Excellence from the National Band Association in 1981.

• 2004 ~ Renata Tebaldi, Italian soprano, died at the age of 82

• 2015 ~ Kurt Masur, German conductor (New York Philharmonic), died at the age of 88

October 21 ~ On This Day in Music

today

• 1885 ~ Egon Wellesz, Austrian composer and musicologist

• 1907 ~ The “Merry Widow” opened in New York. The play starred Ethel Jackson and Donald Brian. The operetta had been introduced in Europe two years before.

• 1908 ~ A Saturday Evening Post advertisement offered a chance to buy, for the first time, a two-sided record. It was on Columbia.

• 1912 ~ Sir Georg Solti, Hungarian-born British conductor, Chicago Symphony Orchestra. He conducted the first complete recording of Wagner’s “Der Ring des Nibelungen”.

OCMS 1917 ~ Dizzy (John Birks) Gillespie, American jazz trumpeter and bandleader Read quotes by and about “Dizzy” Gillespie
More information about Gillespie

• 1921 ~ Sir Malcolm Arnold, Composer of screen scores: “David Copperfield”, “The Chalk “Garden”, “Suddenly, Last Summer”, “Solomon and Sheba”, “Island in the Sun”, “The Bridge on the River Kwai”, “Trapeze”, “I Am a Camera”, “The Belles of St. Trinian’s” “the Eye Witness series”

• 1924 ~ It was a big night for a big band in New York’s Cinderella Ballroom. The crowd loved the Wolverine Orchestra from Chicago and the guy on the cornet, Bix Beiderbecke, the ‘young man with a horn’.

• 1938 ~ Quaker City Jazz was recorded on the Bluebird label by Jan Savitt’s orchestra. The tune would become the theme of the band. It was not, however, recorded in the Quaker City of Philadelphia. The song was waxed in New York City.

• 1940 ~ Manfred Mann (Michael Lubowitz), Singer with Mann-Hugg Blues Brothers

• 1941 ~ Steve Cropper, Guitarist with the groups: Blues Brothers as well as Booker T and The MG’s

• 1942 ~ Elvin Bishop, Guitarist, singer with Paul Butterfield Blues Band

• 1943 ~ Ron Elliott, Guitarist with Beau Brummels

• 1946 ~ Lee Loughnane, Brass with Chicago

• 1953 ~ Charlotte Caffey, Guitar, singer with The Go-Gos

• 1955 ~ Eric Faulkner, Guitarist with Bay City Rollers

• 1957 ~ Julian Cope, Bass, guitar, singer

• 1957 ~ Steve Lukather, Guitarist with Toto

• 1958 ~ Orchestral strings were used for the first time in a rock and roll tune. Buddy Holly recorded It Doesn’t Matter Anymore, written by Paul Anka. Sadly, it would be Holly’s last studio session. The song wasn’t released until after his death in February of 1959.

• 2001 ~ George Feyer, a pianist and entertainer who played at some of New York’s top hotels, died at the age of 92. Feyer, who was known for setting pop lyrics to classical music, entertained the sophisticated Manhattan cafe society for three decades. He played for decades at the Carlyle, the Stanhope and the Waldorf-Astoria. He made many recordings, including his Echoes album series, which featured Echoes of Paris and Echoes of Broadway. Born in Budapest on Oct. 27, 1908, Feyer attended the Franz Liszt Academy of Music, where he studied with composer Sir Georg Solti. One of his first jobs was playing for silent movies. During World War II, the Nazis put Feyer on forced labor details, then imprisoned him in the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp for the final year of the war. Feyer and his family moved to New York in 1951. He stopped working full time in 1982.

August 13: Today in Music History

today

 

• 1820 ~ Sir George Grove, British musicographer and educator.  Grove was editor of the Dictionary of Music and Musicians, the latest revised editions of which still carry his name

• 1860 ~ Annie Oakley born as Phoebe Anne Oakley Moses. She was a markswoman and member of Buffalo Bill Cody’s “Wild West Show” which toured America. The Irving Berlin musical, Annie Get Your Gun, was based on her life.

• 1912 ~ Jules Massenet, French composer of the operas Werther and Manon died.
More information about Massenet

• 1919 ~ George Shearing, British-born American jazz pianist and composer

• 1924 ~ The first country music record to sell one million copies reached that point on this day. It was The Prisoner’s Song, recorded by Vernon Dalhart. He became a Country Music Hall of Famer in 1981.

• 1930 ~ Don Ho, Singer

• 1930 ~ Guy Lombardo and his orchestra recorded Go Home and Tell Your Mother, on Columbia Records.

• 1948 ~ Kathleen Battle, American soprano, Metropolitan Opera diva, performed with the NY Philharmonic, Chicago Symphony, Boston Symphony, Berlin Philharmonic, Vienna Philharmonic, Orchestre de Paris

• 1949 ~ Cliff Fish, Musician, bassist with Paper Lace

• 1951 ~ Dan Fogelberg, Singer

• 1952 ~ “Hound Dog” was recorded for the first time by Big Mama Thornton

Elvis Presley’s “Hound Dog” (1956) is one of the biggest and most instantly recognizable pop songs in history. It’s a song so closely associated with the King of Rock and Roll, in fact, that many may mistakenly assume that it was a Presley original. In fact, the story of the song that gave Elvis his longest-running #1 hit (11 weeks) in the summer of 1956 began four years earlier, when “Hound Dog” was recorded for the very first time by the rhythm-and-blues singer Ellie Mae “Big Mama” Thornton in Los Angeles, California.

• 1958 ~ Feargal Sharkey, Singer with The Undertones

• 1987 ~ Vincent Persichetti, American composer died at the age of 72

• 2001 ~ Neil Cooper, the founder of the ROIR rock and reggae record label, died of cancer. He was 71.
Cooper started Reach Out International Records in 1979 and put out his first release – on cassette only – in 1981 by James Chance and the Contortions.
He then produced a catalog of cassettes by rock groups such as Bad Brains, Glenn Branca, Television, MC5, G.G. Allin, Johnny Thunders, and New York Dolls. ROIR’s reggae releases included Lee “Scratch” Perry, the Skatalites, Prince Far I, and Big Youth among others.
The cassette releases were a way to sidestep the artists’ exclusive contracts with other record labels. Vinyl album and compact disc versions were later issued.
Cooper also worked as an agent for MCA and Famous Artists before starting his label.

• 2003 ~ Ed Townsend, who wrote hit songs including 1958’s “For Your Love” and Marvin Gaye’s controversial “Let’s Get It On,” died at the age of 74.   Townsend had written more than 200 songs.    Nat King Cole and Etta James were among the stars who recorded Townsend’s songs. One of his first hits was “For Your Love” – which Townsend recorded himself.
Townsend also wrote and produced the Impressions’ 1974 No. 1 R&B hit “Finally Got Myself Together (I’m A Changed Man).”

August 13: On This Day in Music

today

Be sure your student reads and listens to Today’s Daily Listening Assignment

 

 

• 1820 ~ Sir George Grove, British musicographer and educator.  Grove was editor of the Dictionary of Music and Musicians, the latest revised editions of which still carry his name

• 1860 ~ Annie Oakley born as Phoebe Anne Oakley Moses. She was a markswoman and member of Buffalo Bill Cody’s “Wild West Show” which toured America. The Irving Berlin musical, Annie Get Your Gun, was based on her life.

• 1912 ~ Jules Massenet, French composer of the operas Werther and Manon died.
More information about Massenet

• 1919 ~ George Shearing, British-born American jazz pianist and composer

• 1924 ~ The first country music record to sell one million copies reached that point on this day. It was The Prisoner’s Song, recorded by Vernon Dalhart. He became a Country Music Hall of Famer in 1981.

• 1930 ~ Don Ho, Singer

• 1930 ~ Guy Lombardo and his orchestra recorded Go Home and Tell Your Mother, on Columbia Records.

• 1948 ~ Kathleen Battle, American soprano, Metropolitan Opera diva, performed with the NY Philharmonic, Chicago Symphony, Boston Symphony, Berlin Philharmonic, Vienna Philharmonic, Orchestre de Paris

• 1949 ~ Cliff Fish, Musician, bassist with Paper Lace

• 1951 ~ Dan Fogelberg, Singer

• 1958 ~ Feargal Sharkey, Singer with The Undertones

• 1987 ~ Vincent Persichetti, American composer died at the age of 72

• 2001 ~ Neil Cooper, the founder of the ROIR rock and reggae record label, died of cancer. He was 71.
Cooper started Reach Out International Records in 1979 and put out his first release – on cassette only – in 1981 by James Chance and the Contortions.
He then produced a catalog of cassettes by rock groups such as Bad Brains, Glenn Branca, Television, MC5, G.G. Allin, Johnny Thunders, and New York Dolls. ROIR’s reggae releases included Lee “Scratch” Perry, the Skatalites, Prince Far I, and Big Youth among others.
The cassette releases were a way to sidestep the artists’ exclusive contracts with other record labels. Vinyl album and compact disc versions were later issued.
Cooper also worked as an agent for MCA and Famous Artists before starting his label.

• 2003 ~ Ed Townsend, who wrote hit songs including 1958’s “For Your Love” and Marvin Gaye’s controversial “Let’s Get It On,” died at the age of 74.   Townsend had written more than 200 songs.    Nat King Cole and Etta James were among the stars who recorded Townsend’s songs. One of his first hits was “For Your Love” – which Townsend recorded himself.
Townsend also wrote and produced the Impressions’ 1974 No. 1 R&B hit “Finally Got Myself Together (I’m A Changed Man).”

On December 19 ~ in Music History

Christmas Music: Johnny Marks

• 1888 ~ Fritz Reiner, Hungarian-born American conductor who was the musical director of the Pittsburgh Symphony, New York Metropolitan Opera and Chicago Symphony. He died in 1963

• 1915 ~ Edith Piaf (Edith Giovanna Gassion), French chanteuse and songwriter

• 1925 ~ ‘Little’ Jimmy Dickens, Country Music Hall of Famer

• 1928 ~ Galt MacDermot, Composer

• 1935 ~ Bobby Timmons, American jazz pianist

• 1940 ~ Phil Ochs, American folk singer, songwriter and guitarist

• 1941 ~ Maurice White, Singer, drummer, founder of the group Earth, Wind & Fire

• 1944 ~ Alvin Lee, Musician with Ten Years After

• 1944 ~ Zal Yanovsky, Guitarist, singer with The Lovin’ Spoonful

• 1952 ~ Jeff Davis, Bass with Amazing Rhythm Aces

• 1952 ~ Janie Fricke, Singer, Country Music Association Female Vocalist of the Year in 1982 and 1983

• 1957 ~ Meredith Willson’s The Music Man opened at the Majestic Theatre in New York City. The Broadway show starred Robert Preston and had a run of 1,375 shows. It also had 76 trombones and 101 cornets in the band…

• 1960 ~ Neil Sedaka’s Calendar Girl was released on RCA Victor Records. The song became Sedaka’s fourth record to make the charts. Other hits from the guy who made money off of a love song for Carole King (Oh, Carol) include The Diary, Stairway to Heaven, Bad Girl, Next Door to an Angel, Happy Birthday Sweet Sixteen, Laughter in the Rain and Breaking Up is Hard to Do.

• 1960 ~ Frank Sinatra recorded his first session with his very own record company. Frank did Ring-A-Ding-Ding and Let’s Fall in Love for Reprise Records.

• 2000 ~ Milt Hinton, a jazz bassist and photographer called “The Judge” by the jazz greats he worked with and photographed during a 70-year career, died at the age of 90. During his career, Hinton performed with almost every luminary of jazz and popular music, from Louis Armstrong, Cab Calloway, Dizzy Gillespie and John Coltrane to Bing Crosby, Frank Sinatra, Barbra Streisand and Paul McCartney. Hinton also documented his world with a camera, compiling close to 60,000 negatives depicting hundreds of jazz artists and popular musicians on the road, in the studio, backstage and at parties.

• 2001 ~ Bill Bissell, a former University of Washington marching band director who helped create “The Wave”, died in his sleep. He was 70. Bissell directed the Huskies’ band with flair, innovation and humor from 1970 until he retired in 1994. He and former Washington yell leader Robb Weller introduced “The Wave,” in which fans stand with arms raised and cheer section by section, to college football 20 years ago. Bissell directed halftime shows at 14 bowl games, including six Rose Bowls and an Orange Bowl, and was awarded a Citation of Excellence from the National Band Association in 1981.

• 2004 ~ Renata Tebaldi, Italian soprano, died at the age of 82

• 2015 ~ Kurt Masur, German conductor (New York Philharmonic), died at the age of 88

On October 21 ~ in Music History

today

• 1885 ~ Egon Wellesz, Austrian composer and musicologist

• 1907 ~ The “Merry Widow” opened in New York. The play starred Ethel Jackson and Donald Brian. The operetta had been introduced in Europe two years before.

• 1908 ~ A Saturday Evening Post advertisement offered a chance to buy, for the first time, a two-sided record. It was on Columbia.

• 1912 ~ Sir Georg Solti, Hungarian-born British conductor, Chicago Symphony Orchestra. He conducted the first complete recording of Wagner’s “Der Ring des Nibelungen”.

OCMS 1917 ~ Dizzy (John Birks) Gillespie, American jazz trumpeter and bandleader Read quotes by and about “Dizzy” Gillespie
More information about Gillespie

• 1921 ~ Sir Malcolm Arnold, Composer of screen scores: “David Copperfield”, “The Chalk “Garden”, “Suddenly, Last Summer”, “Solomon and Sheba”, “Island in the Sun”, “The Bridge on the River Kwai”, “Trapeze”, “I Am a Camera”, “The Belles of St. Trinian’s” “the Eye Witness series”

• 1924 ~ It was a big night for a big band in New York’s Cinderella Ballroom. The crowd loved the Wolverine Orchestra from Chicago and the guy on the cornet, Bix Beiderbecke, the ‘young man with a horn’.

• 1938 ~ Quaker City Jazz was recorded on the Bluebird label by Jan Savitt’s orchestra. The tune would become the theme of the band. It was not, however, recorded in the Quaker City of Philadelphia. The song was waxed in New York City.

• 1940 ~ Manfred Mann (Michael Lubowitz), Singer with Mann-Hugg Blues Brothers

• 1941 ~ Steve Cropper, Guitarist with the groups: Blues Brothers as well as Booker T and The MG’s

• 1942 ~ Elvin Bishop, Guitarist, singer with Paul Butterfield Blues Band

• 1943 ~ Ron Elliott, Guitarist with Beau Brummels

• 1946 ~ Lee Loughnane, Brass with Chicago

• 1953 ~ Charlotte Caffey, Guitar, singer with The Go-Gos

• 1955 ~ Eric Faulkner, Guitarist with Bay City Rollers

• 1957 ~ Julian Cope, Bass, guitar, singer

• 1957 ~ Steve Lukather, Guitarist with Toto

• 1958 ~ Orchestral strings were used for the first time in a rock and roll tune. Buddy Holly recorded It Doesn’t Matter Anymore, written by Paul Anka. Sadly, it would be Holly’s last studio session. The song wasn’t released until after his death in February of 1959.

• 2001 ~ George Feyer, a pianist and entertainer who played at some of New York’s top hotels, died at the age of 92. Feyer, who was known for setting pop lyrics to classical music, entertained the sophisticated Manhattan cafe society for three decades. He played for decades at the Carlyle, the Stanhope and the Waldorf-Astoria. He made many recordings, including his Echoes album series, which featured Echoes of Paris and Echoes of Broadway. Born in Budapest on Oct. 27, 1908, Feyer attended the Franz Liszt Academy of Music, where he studied with composer Sir Georg Solti. One of his first jobs was playing for silent movies. During World War II, the Nazis put Feyer on forced labor details, then imprisoned him in the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp for the final year of the war. Feyer and his family moved to New York in 1951. He stopped working full time in 1982.

On August 13 ~ in Music History

today

Be sure your student reads and listens to Today’s Daily Listening Assignment

 

 

• 1820 ~ Sir George Grove, British musicographer and educator.  Grove was editor of the Dictionary of Music and Musicians, the latest revised editions of which still carry his name

• 1860 ~ Annie Oakley born as Phoebe Anne Oakley Moses. She was a markswoman and member of Buffalo Bill Cody’s “Wild West Show” which toured America. The Irving Berlin musical, Annie Get Your Gun, was based on her life.

• 1912 ~ Jules Massenet, French composer of the operas Werther and Manon died.
More information about Massenet

• 1919 ~ George Shearing, British-born American jazz pianist and composer

• 1924 ~ The first country music record to sell one million copies reached that point on this day. It was The Prisoner’s Song, recorded by Vernon Dalhart. He became a Country Music Hall of Famer in 1981.

• 1930 ~ Don Ho, Singer

• 1930 ~ Guy Lombardo and his orchestra recorded Go Home and Tell Your Mother, on Columbia Records.

• 1948 ~ Kathleen Battle, American soprano, Metropolitan Opera diva, performed with the NY Philharmonic, Chicago Symphony, Boston Symphony, Berlin Philharmonic, Vienna Philharmonic, Orchestre de Paris

• 1949 ~ Cliff Fish, Musician, bassist with Paper Lace

• 1951 ~ Dan Fogelberg, Singer

• 1958 ~ Feargal Sharkey, Singer with The Undertones

• 1987 ~ Vincent Persichetti, American composer died at the age of 72

• 2001 ~ Neil Cooper, the founder of the ROIR rock and reggae record label, died of cancer. He was 71.
Cooper started Reach Out International Records in 1979 and put out his first release – on cassette only – in 1981 by James Chance and the Contortions.
He then produced a catalog of cassettes by rock groups such as Bad Brains, Glenn Branca, Television, MC5, G.G. Allin, Johnny Thunders, and New York Dolls. ROIR’s reggae releases included Lee “Scratch” Perry, the Skatalites, Prince Far I, and Big Youth among others.
The cassette releases were a way to sidestep the artists’ exclusive contracts with other record labels. Vinyl album and compact disc versions were later issued.
Cooper also worked as an agent for MCA and Famous Artists before starting his label.

• 2003 ~ Ed Townsend, who wrote hit songs including 1958’s “For Your Love” and Marvin Gaye’s controversial “Let’s Get It On,” died at the age of 74.   Townsend had written more than 200 songs.    Nat King Cole and Etta James were among the stars who recorded Townsend’s songs. One of his first hits was “For Your Love” – which Townsend recorded himself.
Townsend also wrote and produced the Impressions’ 1974 No. 1 R&B hit “Finally Got Myself Together (I’m A Changed Man).”

December 19 ~ in Music History

Christmas Music: Johnny Marks

• 1888 ~ Fritz Reiner, Hungarian-born American conductor who was the musical director of the Pittsburgh Symphony, New York Metropolitan Opera and Chicago Symphony. He died in 1963

• 1915 ~ Edith Piaf (Edith Giovanna Gassion), French chanteuse and songwriter

• 1925 ~ ‘Little’ Jimmy Dickens, Country Music Hall of Famer

• 1928 ~ Galt MacDermot, Composer

• 1935 ~ Bobby Timmons, American jazz pianist

• 1940 ~ Phil Ochs, American folk singer, songwriter and guitarist

• 1941 ~ Maurice White, Singer, drummer, founder of the group Earth, Wind & Fire

• 1944 ~ Alvin Lee, Musician with Ten Years After

• 1944 ~ Zal Yanovsky, Guitarist, singer with The Lovin’ Spoonful

• 1952 ~ Jeff Davis, Bass with Amazing Rhythm Aces

• 1952 ~ Janie Fricke, Singer, Country Music Association Female Vocalist of the Year in 1982 and 1983

• 1957 ~ Meredith Willson’s The Music Man opened at the Majestic Theatre in New York City. The Broadway show starred Robert Preston and had a run of 1,375 shows. It also had 76 trombones and 101 cornets in the band…

• 1960 ~ Neil Sedaka’s Calendar Girl was released on RCA Victor Records. The song became Sedaka’s fourth record to make the charts. Other hits from the guy who made money off of a love song for Carole King (Oh, Carol) include The Diary, Stairway to Heaven, Bad Girl, Next Door to an Angel, Happy Birthday Sweet Sixteen, Laughter in the Rain and Breaking Up is Hard to Do.

• 1960 ~ Frank Sinatra recorded his first session with his very own record company. Frank did Ring-A-Ding-Ding and Let’s Fall in Love for Reprise Records.

• 2000 ~ Milt Hinton, a jazz bassist and photographer called “The Judge” by the jazz greats he worked with and photographed during a 70-year career, died at the age of 90. During his career, Hinton performed with almost every luminary of jazz and popular music, from Louis Armstrong, Cab Calloway, Dizzy Gillespie and John Coltrane to Bing Crosby, Frank Sinatra, Barbra Streisand and Paul McCartney. Hinton also documented his world with a camera, compiling close to 60,000 negatives depicting hundreds of jazz artists and popular musicians on the road, in the studio, backstage and at parties.

• 2001 ~ Bill Bissell, a former University of Washington marching band director who helped create “The Wave”, died in his sleep. He was 70. Bissell directed the Huskies’ band with flair, innovation and humor from 1970 until he retired in 1994. He and former Washington yell leader Robb Weller introduced “The Wave,” in which fans stand with arms raised and cheer section by section, to college football 20 years ago. Bissell directed halftime shows at 14 bowl games, including six Rose Bowls and an Orange Bowl, and was awarded a Citation of Excellence from the National Band Association in 1981.

• 2004 ~ Renata Tebaldi, Italian soprano, died at the age of 82

• 2015 ~ Kurt Masur, German conductor (New York Philharmonic), died at the age of 88

October 21 ~ in Music History

today

• 1885 ~ Egon Wellesz, Austrian composer and musicologist

• 1907 ~ The “Merry Widow” opened in New York. The play starred Ethel Jackson and Donald Brian. The operetta had been introduced in Europe two years before.

• 1908 ~ A Saturday Evening Post advertisement offered a chance to buy, for the first time, a two-sided record. It was on Columbia.

• 1912 ~ Sir Georg Solti, Hungarian-born British conductor, Chicago Symphony Orchestra. He conducted the first complete recording of Wagner’s “Der Ring des Nibelungen”.

OCMS 1917 ~ Dizzy (John Birks) Gillespie, American jazz trumpeter and bandleader Read quotes by and about “Dizzy” Gillespie
More information about Gillespie

• 1921 ~ Sir Malcolm Arnold, Composer of screen scores: “David Copperfield”, “The Chalk “Garden”, “Suddenly, Last Summer”, “Solomon and Sheba”, “Island in the Sun”, “The Bridge on the River Kwai”, “Trapeze”, “I Am a Camera”, “The Belles of St. Trinian’s” “the Eye Witness series”

• 1924 ~ It was a big night for a big band in New York’s Cinderella Ballroom. The crowd loved the Wolverine Orchestra from Chicago and the guy on the cornet, Bix Beiderbecke, the ‘young man with a horn’.

• 1938 ~ Quaker City Jazz was recorded on the Bluebird label by Jan Savitt’s orchestra. The tune would become the theme of the band. It was not, however, recorded in the Quaker City of Philadelphia. The song was waxed in New York City.

• 1940 ~ Manfred Mann (Michael Lubowitz), Singer with Mann-Hugg Blues Brothers

• 1941 ~ Steve Cropper, Guitarist with the groups: Blues Brothers as well as Booker T and The MG’s

• 1942 ~ Elvin Bishop, Guitarist, singer with Paul Butterfield Blues Band

• 1943 ~ Ron Elliott, Guitarist with Beau Brummels

• 1946 ~ Lee Loughnane, Brass with Chicago

• 1953 ~ Charlotte Caffey, Guitar, singer with The Go-Gos

• 1955 ~ Eric Faulkner, Guitarist with Bay City Rollers

• 1957 ~ Julian Cope, Bass, guitar, singer

• 1957 ~ Steve Lukather, Guitarist with Toto

• 1958 ~ Orchestral strings were used for the first time in a rock and roll tune. Buddy Holly recorded It Doesn’t Matter Anymore, written by Paul Anka. Sadly, it would be Holly’s last studio session. The song wasn’t released until after his death in February of 1959.

• 2001 ~ George Feyer, a pianist and entertainer who played at some of New York’s top hotels, died at the age of 92. Feyer, who was known for setting pop lyrics to classical music, entertained the sophisticated Manhattan cafe society for three decades. He played for decades at the Carlyle, the Stanhope and the Waldorf-Astoria. He made many recordings, including his Echoes album series, which featured Echoes of Paris and Echoes of Broadway. Born in Budapest on Oct. 27, 1908, Feyer attended the Franz Liszt Academy of Music, where he studied with composer Sir Georg Solti. One of his first jobs was playing for silent movies. During World War II, the Nazis put Feyer on forced labor details, then imprisoned him in the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp for the final year of the war. Feyer and his family moved to New York in 1951. He stopped working full time in 1982.

August 13 ~ in Music History

today

• 1820 ~ Sir George Grove, British musicographer and educator.  Grove was editor of the Dictionary of Music and Musicians, the latest revised editions of which still carry his name

• 1860 ~ Annie Oakley born as Phoebe Anne Oakley Moses. She was a markswoman and member of Buffalo Bill Cody’s “Wild West Show” which toured America. The Irving Berlin musical, Annie Get Your Gun, was based on her life.

• 1912 ~ Jules Massenet, French composer of the operas Werther and Manon died.
More information about Massenet

• 1919 ~ George Shearing, British-born American jazz pianist and composer

• 1924 ~ The first country music record to sell one million copies reached that point on this day. It was The Prisoner’s Song, recorded by Vernon Dalhart. He became a Country Music Hall of Famer in 1981.

• 1930 ~ Don Ho, Singer

• 1930 ~ Guy Lombardo and his orchestra recorded Go Home and Tell Your Mother, on Columbia Records.

• 1948 ~ Kathleen Battle, American soprano, Metropolitan Opera diva, performed with the NY Philharmonic, Chicago Symphony, Boston Symphony, Berlin Philharmonic, Vienna Philharmonic, Orchestre de Paris

• 1949 ~ Cliff Fish, Musician, bassist with Paper Lace

• 1951 ~ Dan Fogelberg, Singer

• 1958 ~ Feargal Sharkey, Singer with The Undertones

• 1987 ~ Vincent Persichetti, American composer died at the age of 72

• 2001 ~ Neil Cooper, the founder of the ROIR rock and reggae record label, died of cancer. He was 71.
Cooper started Reach Out International Records in 1979 and put out his first release – on cassette only – in 1981 by James Chance and the Contortions.
He then produced a catalog of cassettes by rock groups such as Bad Brains, Glenn Branca, Television, MC5, G.G. Allin, Johnny Thunders, and New York Dolls. ROIR’s reggae releases included Lee “Scratch” Perry, the Skatalites, Prince Far I, and Big Youth among others.
The cassette releases were a way to sidestep the artists’ exclusive contracts with other record labels. Vinyl album and compact disc versions were later issued.
Cooper also worked as an agent for MCA and Famous Artists before starting his label.

• 2003 ~ Ed Townsend, who wrote hit songs including 1958’s “For Your Love” and Marvin Gaye’s controversial “Let’s Get It On,” died at the age of 74.   Townsend had written more than 200 songs.    Nat King Cole and Etta James were among the stars who recorded Townsend’s songs. One of his first hits was “For Your Love” – which Townsend recorded himself.
Townsend also wrote and produced the Impressions’ 1974 No. 1 R&B hit “Finally Got Myself Together (I’m A Changed Man).”