Categories
Today in Music

May, 15

  • 2000 Free, one of the U.K.’s best-respected rock bands, is celebrated with the U.K. release of a five-CD box set. “Songs Of Yesterday” is an 80-track compilation of the legacy of the powerhouse rock/R&B act – both on its own recordings and with other artists.
  • 2000 Sweden’s King Carl XVI presents Isaac Stern and Bob Dylan each with the Polar Music Prize at Stockholm’s Berwaldhallen venue. The prize consists of Skr 1 million ($110,968).
  • 1999 Rob Gretton, manager of Joy Division and New Order, dies of a heart attack. Gretton, 45, was key in developing the ‘80s Manchester scene.
  • 1999 Ernst Mosch, Germany’s “king of folk music,” collapses and dies at his home in Germaringen. He is 73. Mosch founded an orchestra in 1955 that popularized the typical sound of Bohemian brass-band music and subsequently sold more than 40 million records on Teldec and Koch.
  • 1998 Pioneering music-industry attorney Harold Orenstein dies in New York. He is 85. Active until his death, Orenstein focused on the songwriter/music publisher phase of the business. He also represented composer Philip Glass and the late Frank Loesser.
  • 1994 Singers Sting and Nancy Wilson receive honorary doctorates from the Berklee College of Music in Boston. The former lead singer of the Police called music a priceless gift and told graduates it has the power to heal souls. His diploma was inscribed with his real name: Gordon Sumner.
  • 1982 No. 1 Billboard Pop Hit: “Ebony and Ivory,” Paul McCartney with Stevie Wonder.
  • 1977 No. 1 Billboard Pop Hit: “Sir Duke,” Stevie Wonder. The song is a tribute to jazz genius Duke Ellington.
  • 1968 No. 1 Billboard Pop Hit: “Tighten Up,” Archie Bell & the Drells. Archie Bell was hospitalized from wounds suffered in Vietnam when the song hit the top.
    1963 Tony Bennett’s “I Left My Heart in San Francisco” wins a Grammy for Record of the Year, Vaughn Meader’s “The First Family” wins a Grammy for Album of the Year.
  • 1953 Mike Oldfield is born in Reading, England. The classical rock multi-instrumentalist-composer’s only entry in the Hot 100 is “Tubular Bells,” the theme from “The Exorcist.” The song reaches No. 7 in 1974.
  • 1948 Brian Eno (Brian Peter George St. John le Baptiste de la Salle Eno) is born in Suffolk, England. He is a founding member of the group Roxy Music.
  • 1918 Country music singer Eddy Arnold (Richard Edward Arnold) is born near Henderson, Tenn. He becomes a popular singer on Nashville’s Grand Ole Opry as Pee Wee King and goes on to be one of country’s most prolific recording artists, spending 145 weeks at No. 1 on Billboard’s country singles chart, more than any other performer.