On May 22 2014, Fleetwood Mac‘s Christine McVie was honoured with a lifetime achievement at this year’s Ivor Novello songwriting awards. McVie played with Fleetwood Mac for 28 years and wrote some of their most famous songs, including ‘Don’t Stop’ and ‘Little Lies’. Other winners at the ceremony in London included London Grammar, The Chemical Brothers and Nile Rodgers.
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Today Music’s History
In March 1st 2019, Country Music Hall of Fame member Fred Foster died age 87. He is credited as producer behind all of Roy Orbison’s biggest hits including ‘Oh, Pretty Woman’, ‘Only the Lonely’, and ‘Crying’ and also produced major hits for Dolly Parton, Willie Nelson, Ray Stevens and Kris Kristofferson.
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Today in Music’s History
On May 28 1966, Percy Sledge started a two week run at No.1 on the US singles chart with ‘When A Man Loves A Woman’. A No.4 hit on the UK chart and No.2 when re-issued in 1987. Before the recording session, the song had no title or lyrics. The session proceeded with the expectation that Sledge would produce them for the vocal takes. When it came time to record the vocals, Sledge improvised the lyrics with minimal pre-planning, using the melody as a guide for rhythm and phrasing. The performance was so convincing that others working on the session assumed Sledge had the lyrics written down.
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Today in Music’s History
On June 28 1997, Puff Daddy and Faith Evans started a three-week run at No.1 on the UK singles chart with ‘I’ll Be Missing You’. Released in memory of fellow Bad Boy Records artist Notorious B.I.G. who was murdered on March 9, 1997. The song sampled the melody of The Police hit ‘Every Breath You Take’.
