On March 20 2020, Kenny Rogers, singer-songwriter, record producer, actor, and entrepreneur died age 81. He charted more than 120 hit singles across various music genres, topping the country and pop album charts for more than 200 individual weeks in the US alone. He was voted the “Favorite Singer of All-Time” in a 1986 joint poll by readers of both USA Today and People.
-
Today Music’s History
On May 2 1964, The Rolling Stones self-titled debut album started a 12-week run at No.1 on the UK charts. The album spent a total of 51 weeks on the UK chart. Also on his day The Stones made their first appearance on the US singles chart when ‘Not Fade Away’ entered the chart at No.98.
-
Kurt Cobain’s smashed Fender guitar sold for almost $600,000
Kurt Cobain’s smashed Fender Stratocaster guitar sold at auction for $595,900, more than 10 times its original estimate. The Nirvana frontman’s iconic left-handed electric guitar was smashed while the grunge pioneers were making their seminal Nevermind album in the early 1990s. Reassembled but unplayable, it was expected to sell for between $60,000 and $80,000 at the Julien’s auction at the Hard Rock Cafe in New York over the weekend.
-
Today in Music’s History
American jazz trumpeter, singer and bandleader, Louis Armstrong died on July 6th 1971. Had many hits including the 1964 US No.1 ‘Hello Dolly!’, 1968 UK No.1 ‘What A Wonderful World’ plus ‘When The Saints Go Marching In’, ‘Ain’t Misbehavin’, and ‘We Have All the Time in the World.’ He made frequent use of laxatives as a means of controlling his weight, resulting in Armstrong appearing in humorous, advertisements for laxative product Swiss Kriss; the ads bore a picture of him sitting on a toilet, as viewed through a keyhole, with the slogan “Satch says, ‘Leave it all behind ya!”
