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Today in Music

May, 18

  • 1999 The Backstreet Boys release their highly anticipated third album, “Millennium.” The album goes on to become the best-selling album of the year.
  • 1999 Influential reggae producer Augusto Pablo dies in Kingston, Jamaica at the age of 46. Pablo had been suffering with the nerve disorder myasthenia gravis. Pablo, born Horace Swaby, issued groundbreaking instrumental albums under his own name, including his most recent “Valley Of Jehosaphat.”
  • 1998 Sir Elton John confirms that his representation by John Reid has ended after 28 years. John announces that he has set up his own management company, Elton John Management Ltd., to be headed by London Records U.K. managing director Colin Bell.
  • 1998 Country humorist and Grand Ole Opry member Jerry Clower receives the All-American Football Foundation’s Outstanding American Award at Sam’s Town Casino in Tunica, Miss. Clower, a former lineman for Mississippi State University, started in the first football game he ever saw.
  • 1998 Berry Gordy receives the inaugural ASCAP American Legend Award for his work as a songwriter and Motown Records founder at the 15th annual ASCAP Pop Music Awards.
  • 1992 The Washington Post quotes rapper Sister Souljah as saying “If black people kill black people every day, why not have a week and kill white people?” Democratic presidential candidate Bill Clinton starts a political brouhaha when he denounces the comment several weeks later at a convention of the Rev. Jesse Jackson’s Rainbow Coalition.
  • 1978 The film “The Buddy Holly Story,” starring Gary Busey, premieres in Dallas.
  • 1969 No. 1 Billboard Pop Hit: “Get Back,” The Beatles.
  • 1960 No. 1 Billboard Pop Hit: “Cathy’s Clown,” The Everly Brothers.
  • 1957 The main creative force behind Enigma, producer Michael Cretu, is born in Bucharest, Romania. On this date in 1996, Enigma’s debut album “MCMXC A.D.,” released in 1990, had been on Billboard’s Top 200 Albums chart for more than 150 weeks.
  • 1955 No. 1 Billboard Pop Hit: “Cherry Pink and Apple Blossom White,” Perez Prado.
  • 1945 No. 1 Billboard Pop Hit: “My Dreams Are Getting Better All the Time,” Les Brown Orchestra/Doris Day.