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Today in Music

February, 15

  • 1999 Hip-hop act Petter and the Cardigans sweep the 1998 Swedish Grammis awards at the Kungliga Tennishallen in Stockholm.
  • 1998 Fans of Japanese rock act Glay cause the Tokyo area phone system to break down as they try to reserve tickets for an upcoming concert by the band. Chaos ensues at the Nagano Winter Olympics main pressroom as long distance lines go down during the ski-jumping event.
  • 1995 Songwriter Diane Warren receives the Voice of Music Award, one of the American Society of Composers and Performers’ highest honors. Warren has written songs for Whitney Houston, Elton John, Diana Ross, Ace of Base, and Ziggy Marley, among a hundred others.
  • 1981 Blues guitarist Mike Bloomfield dies in San Francisco of an accidental drug overdose.
  • 1979 Billy Joel’s “Just the Way You Are” wins two Grammys: Record of the Year and Song of the Year.
  • 1979 Donna Summer’s “Last Dance” wins two Grammys: Best Female R&B Vocal and Best R&B Song.
  • 1976 Bette Midler bails seven members of her entourage out of jail after they are arrested on cocaine and marijuana possession charges.
  • 1969 Ali Campbell, lead singer of the British reggae group UB40, is born in Birmingham, England. The group takes its name from a British unemployment benefit form. Its biggest hits are “Red, Red Wine,” a million-selling song that made Billboard’s top 40 in 1984 and went to No. 1 when re-released in 1988, and “Can’t Help Falling in Love” from the film “Sliver,” which hit No. 1 in 1993.
  • 1967 The first anti-bootlegging recording laws are enacted.
  • 1941 Big band leader Duke Ellington makes his first recording of the classic “Take the A Train.” The recording receives a Grammy Hall of Fame Award in 1976.