Today in Music History for Jan. 24:
In 1941, singer-songwriter-actor Neil Diamond was born in Brooklyn, N.Y. He began in 1962 as a $50-a-week songwriter, and among the songs he churned out was "I'm a Believer," a hit for "The Monkees" in 1966, and later remade by Anne Murray. Diamond signed with Bang records in 1965, turning out a series of teen hits such as "Cherry Cherry" and "Kentucky Woman." At the end of the 1960s, successes such as "Sweet Caroline" and later "Song Sung Blue" established him as a major star. Diamond was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 1984 and into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2011.
In 1947, singer-songwriter Warren Zevon, who wrote and sang the rock hit "Werewolves of London," was born in Chicago. He was among the wittiest and most original of a broad circle of performers to emerge from Los Angeles in the 1970s. Zevon had a reputation as one of rock music's most politically incorrect lyricists. He released his first album, "Wanted -- Dead or Alive," to little notice in 1969, but gained attention in the '70s by writing a string of popular songs for Linda Ronstadt, including "Poor, Poor Pitiful Me," "Carmelita" and "Hasten Down the Wind." His next two albums, 1976's "Warren Zevon" and 1978's "Excitable Boy," followed those songs with sardonic tales of prom-date rapists; headless, gun-toting soldiers of fortune; and vain werewolves who drank pina coladas at singles bars. He also composed the song "She Quit Me Man" for the movie "Midnight Cowboy.'" He died after a year-long battle with lung cancer on Sept. 7, 2003.
In 1957, Elvis Presley recorded the song "Teddy Bear."
In 1962, "The Beatles" signed a management contract with Brian Epstein. He had caught the group's act at the Cavern club in Liverpool, England the previous month. Epstein cleaned up the group's image, replacing their black leather jackets, tight jeans and Presley style haircuts with collarless grey Pierre Cardin suits and the now-familiar shaggy "Beatle" hairstyle.
In 1967, Aretha Franklin recorded her first major hit, "I Never Loved a Man (The Way I Love You)," at Muscle Shoals, Ala. But the LP on which she was working had to be finished later in New York because Franklin's husband got into an argument with one of the studio musicians.
In 1969, "Jethro Tull" played its first U.S. concert, in New York City. They were the opening act for "Led Zeppelin."
In 1970, James (Shep) Sheppard, lead singer of "The Heartbeats" and "Shep and the Limelights," was found beaten to death in his car on the Long Island Expressway in New York." A Thousand Miles Away" by "The Heartbeats" is one of the best-remembered songs of the late-'50s doo-wop era.
In 1984, Yoko Ono and her son, Sean Lennon, visited some of the old "Beatle" haunts in Liverpool.
In 1985, three former members of "The Mothers of Invention" sued Frank Zappa for back royalties. Zappa responded that drummer Jimmy Carl Black still owed him money for drum lessons in 1969.
In 1986, singer and actor Gordon MacRae, the star of such movie musicals as "Oklahoma" and "Carousel," died of cancer in Lincoln, Neb., at the age of 64. MacRae's long career reached its peak on the screen in the mid-1950s. Later in the decade, he moved into television as host of the "Colgate Comedy Hour" and "Lux Television Theatre." He also made many recordings, primarily show tunes, for Capitol Records. He fought a long battle against alcoholism, and once said that he had been so drunk during a concert in Greenville, South Carolina that he couldn't remember any song lyrics. MacRae suffered a stroke in 1982 but he struggled to keep performing until cancer overtook him in 1985.
In 1989, Guild, the Rhode Island guitar company that made instruments for such stars as Elvis Presley and Johnny Cash, was sold to a Wisconsin amplifier manufacturer.
In 1992, the producer of the "New Kids on the Block" album "Hangin' Tough" claimed the boy band performed only about 20 per cent of the music on it. Greg McPherson said the real voices behind the group were Michael Johnson and his brother Maurice Starr, the Kids' manager. The claims were in a suit filed by McPherson, who was seeking $21 million for creative contributions and royalties. The allegations were denied by NKOTB and McPherson dropped his lawsuit and withdrew his lip-synching claims three months later.
In 1995, Grammy Award-winning producer David Cole died in New York of complications from spinal meningitis. He was 32. Cole won his Grammy for "The Bodyguard" soundtrack, but he made his name in the dance music resurgence that began in the late 1980s.
In 1996, the L.A. Times reported that MCA had reached a $200 million partnership agreement with Interscope Records. The deal came four months after Time Warner got rid of the label following intense criticism of its "gangsta rap" artists, such as Snoop Doggy Dogg and Tupac Shakur.
In 1997, Grammy-nominated concert pianist Earl Wild was awarded nearly $620,000 because a shoulder injury from a car crash limited his playing.
In 1998, country singer Justin Tubb died in Nashville following emergency surgery for a burst blood vessel in his stomach. He was 62.
In 1998, a British survey of 36,000 record buyers named "Sergeant Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band" by "The Beatles" as the most popular album of all time.
In 1998, the soundtrack for "Titanic" hit No. 1 on the Billboard album chart. It included the hit "My Heart Will Go On," sung by Celine Dion.
In 2000, London-based EMI and Time Warner announced a US$20 billion merger to create the world's biggest music company. In October, the merger fell through as it failed to meet the concerns of European Commission officials.
In 2002, country singer-songwriter Freddy Fender received a kidney from his daughter in a transplant operation in San Antonio. The two-time Grammy winner had undergone 18 months of dialysis because of kidney failure -- likely caused by diabetes. Two years later he would have a liver transplant. Fender continued to suffer from poor health and died of lung cancer on Oct. 14, 2006 at age 69. He was best known for his hit songs, "Wasted Days and Wasted Nights" and "Before the Next Teardrop."
In 2011, Johnny Cash was posthumously inducted into the Gospel Hall of Fame in Hendersonville, Tenn. Rock band "DeGarmo and Key," jazz band "The Golden Gate Quartet" and Bill "Hoss" Allen were also inducted.
In 2011, surgeons successfully closed a hole in the heart of former "Poison" frontman Bret Michaels. It was discovered the previous April when he was treated for a brain hemorrhage.
In 2012, jurors ruled that Integris Canadian Valley Regional Hospital in Yukon, Okla., return a US$500,000 donation to country music star Garth Brooks plus pay him US$500,000 in punitive damages because it reneged on a pledge to build a women's health centre in honour of his late mother.
In 2012, country music star Tim McGraw's long-delayed album "Emotional Traffic" was finally released. It was the last album in the long, lucrative, but contentious, relationship between McGraw and Curb Records.
In 2012, Pete Townshend of "The Who" announced he was selling his entire catalogue of nearly 400 songs to Spirit Music Group, in a deal rumoured to be worth US$100 million.
In 2015, Tim Farriss, guitarist and founding member of Australian rock band INXS, severed his left ring finger while operating an electric anchor winch on his boat in Sydney. He underwent two surgeries to try to reattach the finger but was left with permanent damage.
In 2017, drummer Butch Trucks of The Allman Brothers Band died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound at his home in West Palm Beach, Fla. He was 69.
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The Canadian Press