July 12th

On this day - July 12th 1962 - The Rolling Stones performed their first concert 

The Rolling Stones was formed in London in 1962. The band played their first gig at Marquee Club in Oxford street on this day in 1962 under the name "The Rollin' Stones" The band consisted of  Jagger, Richards and Jones, Stewart and Dick Taylor at the time. Billy Wyman joined in December and Charlie Watts in Januar 1963. The first Single "Come on" was released by the band in July 1963. Their debut album was released in April 1964 and had the name "The Rolling Stones". The well known logo was introduced in 1971.

June 7th

On this day - June 7th 1958 - The singer Prince was born

Prince was an singer, songwriter, musician and actor born in Minneapolis in 1958 and one of the best selling artists of all time. His full name is Prince Rogers Nelson and he was named after his fathers stage name. Prince's father was a pianist and songwriter who played in a jazz-group called "Prince Rogers Trio". His mother was a jazz singer and Prince took an early interest in music. He wrote his first tune called "Funk Machine" when he was seven years old. He signed a contract with Warner Bros when he was 18 years old. His debut album "For you" was released in 1978.  Prince has won 7 Grammy awards, one golden globe and one Oscar. On April 27th 2016, at the age of 57, died Prince in his home in Minnesota. He will be missed by music-fans all over the world. 

Ticket to one of Prince' first concert from the Minesota Historical Museum 

May 4th

On this day - May 4th 1959 - The first Annual Grammy Award 

The Grammy awards is a music award ceremony held in the US. The first of the annual Grammy award was held in 1959 in two separate ceremonies held at the same time. One was hosted in New York while the other was held in Beverly Hills, California. Record, album and song of the year went to Domenico Modugno. Best Country song went to The Kingston Trio for the still well-known song "Tom Dooley".Best Jazz performance went to Ella Fitzgerald (individual) and Count Basie (Group). Best Album cover went to Frank Sinatra! The Grammy awards was not televised before the second award show in November the same year.

April 27th

On this day - April 27th 1810 - Beethoven composed "Für Elise" 

The Bagatelle No. 25 in A minor for solo piano is one of Beethovens most famous and popular compositions. It score was published 40 years after Beethovens death, but the original script was dated April 27th 1810. The original is today lost, which have led to several debates about exactly how the original script went. It is also not known who "Elise" was, but one theory was that the original title was "Fur Therese" and that the song was written for Therese Malfatti, a friend of Beethoven. Another theory is that is was written for Elisabeth Röckel, a soprano singer Beethoven knew. You can download the song here if you want to listen to it: Fur Elise.

March 19th

On this day - March 19th 1962 - Bob Dylan released his first album 

Robert Allen Zimmerman, better known as Bob Dylan, released his first album on march 19th. The title of the album was simply "Bob Dylan". It was released on Colombian Records and was produced by John Hammon. The album was recorded over three sessions in November 1961. The release did not receive much attention and it did not sell well in the beginning. However, because the costs for recording the album had been incredible low, avoided the album financial disaster. Bob Dylan released his next album only a year after this album was released. The album "The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan" achieved much more success than his first try and Bob Dylan went on to become an iconic and well known singer and song writer. His first album was re-released in 2010.

March 7th

On this day - March 7th 1985 - The "We are the world" single was released

"We are the world" was a charity song written by Michael Jackson and Lionel Richie. The song was recorded by the "group" USA for Africa who consisted of singers such as Stevie Wonder, Tina Turner, Billy Joel, Bruce Springsteen, and Bob Dylan. All the income from the song went to famine relief in Africa. The background and idea for the song came from the British song "Do they know its Christmas" which were released in 1984 and whose income all went to charity. Another reason was the 1983-85 famine in African (in particular Ethiopia) where over one million people starved to death. We are the world became the fasted selling american pop single of all time and was a huge commercial success. Over 63 million american dollars was raised from the song and its merchandise. In 2010 was a remake of the song created, but this time to aid the survivors of the Haiti earthquake (January 12th).

"We are the world, we are the children, we are the ones who make a brighter day, so let's start giving"

February 8th

On this day - February 8th 1932 - Film Score composer John Williams was born

John Williams is an american musician and composer who are best known for his film scores. Some of his legendary scores includes Jaws, Star Wars, Harry Potter (1,2,3), E.T, Schindlers List and Indiana Jones.

Williams was born in New York in a very musical family. John Williams studied piano at the Juliard School and moved to Los Angeles to work as a film studio orchestrator and a studio pianist. His first film composition was in 1958 for the movie Daddy-O, but he soon achived recognition in Hollywood. In 1974 cooperated he on the movie "The Sugerland Express" with director Steven Spielberg. Williams have since composed the music for almost all of Spielbergs best known films.

John Williams have been nominated for 50 academy awards, which makes him the second most nominated individual, after Walt Disney. His first nomination was for Valley of the Dolls in 1967. His first win was in 1971 for Fiddler on the roof. His second academy award was for the well known, two note, suspencion score, in the movie Jaws. His third academy award was for the even better known score in Star Wars from 1977. His 50th academy award nomination was in 2015 for the new Star wars movie, The Force awakens. His next cooperation with Spielberg will be the movie "BFG" which permiers in 2016.

Happy Birthday, John Williams!

John Williams at  the Boston Pops, 28 May 2011, photo by Chris Devers

February 7th

On this day - February 7th 1964 - The Beatles landed in New York 

The popular band from Liverpool did not have the best start in the United States. Their record company was acting trough a subsidiary Capitol Records. Capitol Records hindered releases of Beatles singes by declining to issue their music. EMI changed to the local label Vee-Jay that ended up releasing some songs but not all. The contract with Vee-Jay was canceled when it came out that they did not report royalties on their sales. The Beatles started to gain traction after their manager Brian Epstein arranged a 40,000 USD marketing campaign in late 1963. On December 26 1963 their song "I want to Hold your Hand" was released and by mid January it had sold a million copies. When the Beatles left the UK there were an estimated 4000 fans gathered to see them off. When they landed in New York, on this date, there were 3000 people greeting them. They played the Ed Sullivan Show and a record 73 million viewers in 23 million households watched (34%). At the time it was the largest audience for an American tv show. In spite of this the day after the reviews were negative in the US. After their first concert however Beatlemania erupted and the show got great reviews. The Beatles visited the Ed Sullivan Show a second time before leaving for the UK on the 22nd of February. Their visit is called the "British Invasion", the rest is as we say history. 

The Beatles at John F. Kennedy airport

December 8th

On this day – 8^th December 1980 – John Lennon from the Beatles died

John Lennon was an English singer and songwriter who were, without doubt, best known for his co-founding of the band “the Beatles”. He continued his career after the band was dissolved as a solo artist and as an political activist. His most famous solo songs include “Imagine” and “Working Class Hero”.

John Lennon only mad it to 40 years old. On this day, in 1980, he was murdered in New York City where he lived at the time. He was shot by Mark David Chapman, a former the Beatles fan, but a Christian fanatic at the time of the shooting. He shot at Lennon five times and hit him with four of the shots. John Lennon was pronounced dead at the arrival at the hospital. Chapman, who stayed at the murder scene and was caught, plead guilty and was sentenced to prison where he still is today.

John Lennon’s death lead to a worldwide mourning unlike anything that had been experienced before. At least three the Beatles fans committed suicide after his death. Lennon left behind two children and his wife and a musical legacy that not many other musicians have managed to recreate.  

Just hours before he was murdered signed John Lennon a copy of Double fantasy for Chapman, his murderer.
Copyright wikipedia 

"You may say I'm a dreamer

But I'm not the only one

I hope someday you'll join us

Ant the world will be as one"

November 30th

On this day – November 30^th 1982 – Thriller was released

The second solo album from Michael Jackson was called Thriller. With hits like "Thriller", "Beat it" and "Billie Jean" went on to sell 65 million copies, thus making it the best selling album of all time. At its peak the Album sold one million copies worldwide per week. The album was awarded eight Grammy awards in 1984 including Album of the Year. Thriller was the first album to successfully use music videos as a promotional tool. The music video for the "Thriller" track was 14 minutes long and it has been called the best music video ever.