In 1882, a Jewish baby was born in Germany named Max Born. He grew up to be a physicist at Gottingen University. In 1935, Adolph Hitler personally terminated him from his position because he was born Jewish. Max immigrated to England. He became a professor at Cambridge University. Later, he began working at the University of Edinburgh. His daughter, Irene, gave birth to his granddaughter, Olivia Newtonian-John.
It was not until Janis Joplin covered Big Mama Thornton’s “Ball ‘n’ Chain” that it became a hit. Thornton did not receive compensation for her song, but Joplin gave her the recognition she deserved by having Thornton open for her. Big Mama praised Joplin’s version of “no Ball ‘n’ Chain”, saying, “That girl feels like I do.
The first live stream event took place on June 24th, 1993, from the offices of Xerox PARC in Palo Alto, California
91 of Paul McCartney’s singles reached the Top 10, with 33 of those making it to No.1
The Nobel Prize in Literature 2016 was awarded to Bob Dylan for creating “new poetic expressions within the great American song tradition” during a 55-year career.
Alicia Keys single ‘If I Ain’t Got You‘ remained on the Billboard Hot R&B/Hip Hop songs chart for more than a year and the first female artist to do so.
“If you play music with passion and love and honesty, then it will nourish your soul, heal your wounds and make your life worth living. Music is its own reward.”_ Sting
The piano was invented in Italy in 1709 by harpsichord maker Bartolomeo di Francesco Cristofori. The word piano is the shortened version of the word pianoforte, which means soft (piano) and loud (forte). One of Cristofori’s original pianos is at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City.
On Thursday, June 12, 2003, Queen became the first complete group inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame.
A legendary husband-and-wife songwriting team, Boudleaux and Felice Bryant’s profiles include more than 6,000 songs and more than 1,000 recordings. Their first great hit was “Bye, Bye Love,” followed by “Wake Up Little Susie.”
On 3 April 2022, Dernst “D’Mile” Emile became the first songwriter to win back-to-back awards for song of the year in 2021 and 2022 consecutively.
Simon and Garfunkel met in grade school when they both appeared in a production of Alice in Wonderland. Paul was the White Rabbit and Art was the Cheshire Cat.
“Because my musical training has been limited, I’ve never been restricted by what technical musicians might call a song.”_ Neil Diamon
The oldest guitar-like instruments came from Egypt. A singer named Har-Mose was buried with a 3-string chordophone, made out of rawhide over a cedar body. It even had a pick attached by a cord! . The soundbox was made of beautifully polished cedarwood and had a rawhide soundboard.
Bob Marley gave songwriting credits on “No Woman No Cry” to his childhood friend Vincent Ford, who ran a soup kitchen in Jamaica. Royalties from the hit song helped keep the kitchen running.
Paul McCartney woke up one morning with the tune “Yesterday” in his head but not the lyrics. The placeholder words he worked with: “Scrambled eggs … oh, my baby, how I love your legs …
First Music CD pressed in the U.S. was Bruce Springsteen’s “Born in the U.S.A.” September 1984.
First commercially release Music CD was Billy Joel’s “52nd Street,” on October 1, 1982, By Sony in Japan.
“Music is the movement of sound to reach the soul for the education of its virtue.”_ Plato
Theobald Böhm, a German inventor and Bavarian musician, perfected the modern western concert flute and improved its fingering system. He was a virtuoso flautist and a renowned composer.
Barbra Streisand attended Erasmus Hall High School in New York City with Neil Diamond, where they both sang in the choir.
Mozart sold the most CDs of any artist in 2016, outselling Beyonce, and Adele.
Before joining Queen, Guitarist Brian May studied astrophysics and later completed his doctoral thesis and earned his Ph.D.
David Bowie changed his name so he wouldn’t be confused with Davy Jones of The Monkees.
“A creative artist works on his next composition because he was not satisfied with his previous one.” – Dmitri Shostakovich
The ‘Hydraulis’ or the water organ, the first known Organ built by Ctesibius, a famous engineer of his time in the ancient Mediterranean city of Alexandria, in today’s Egypt. The Hydraulis was operated by compressed air first channeled through a container of water to equalize the pressure.
By The original uploader was Nacéra Benseddik at French Wikipedia. – Transferred from fr.wikipedia to Commons by Moumou82., CC BY-SA 1.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=10048700
The Chitlin’ Circuit was a collection of performance venues that provided acceptance for African American musicians during the era of racial segregation in the United States through the 1960s. It featured many talented artists such as Ray Charles, Aretha Franklin, Duke Ellington, Billy Holiday, and Sam Cook just to name a few.
In 1954 Ray Charles’ song “I Got a Woman’ reached number 1 and the style of music became known as soul.
Justin Hayward of the Moody Blues wrote and composed “Nights in White Satin” at age 19 while touring in Belgium. He named the song after a girlfriend who gave him a gift of satin bedsheets.
Ed Sheeran has six Guitars named Felix, Nigel, Trevor, Keith, Lloyd, and Cyril. He likes Martins and some are Fenders. He also sometimes plays a guitar he designed himself.
“I would rather write 10,000 notes than a single letter of the alphabet.” – Ludwig van Beethoven
While the oldest violin in existence today is one built by Andre Amati from Cremona, Italy around 1565, both he and Gasparo di Bertolotti from Salon, Italy are considered the first known violin makers in recorded history.
The Beatles were rejected by an English record label in 1962 because their executives felt that “guitar groups are on the way out” and “the Beatles have no future in show business”
Rod Stewart’s 1993 New Year’s Eve concert on Copacabana Beach in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, is the largest free concert attended by the most people in history with an estimated 4.2 million attendees.