On March 20 1960, Elvis Presley started his first recordings since being discharged from the US Army. A 12 hour session in a Nashville recording studio produced his next No.1 single, ‘Stuck On You’. Scotty Moore and Bill Black, who had quit Presley’s touring band in 1957, were in the studio with him for the last time. In 1961, Elvis Presley started a two week run at No.1 on the US singles chart with ‘Surrender’, his fifth No.1 of the 60s. It also made No.1 in the UK. The song was based on the 1911 Italian song, ‘Return To Sorrento.’
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Today in Music’s History
On October 19 1985, A-Ha went to No.1 on the US singles chart with ‘Take On Me’, making them the first Norwegian group to score a US No.1. The video for the song featured the band in a pencil-sketch animation method called rotoscoping, combined with live action which won six awards and was nominated for two others at the 1986 MTV Video Music Awards.
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Today Music’s History
On March 20 1991, Eric Clapton‘s four year old son, Conor, fell to his death from the 53rd story of a New York City apartment after a housekeeper who was cleaning the room left a window open. The boy was in the custody of his mother, Italian actress, Lori Del Santo and the pair were visiting a friend’s apartment. Clapton was staying in a nearby hotel after taking his son to the circus the previous evening. The tragedy inspired his song ‘Tears in Heaven’.
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Today Music’s History
On March 16 1964, The Beatles set a new record for advance sales in the US with 2,100,000 copies of their latest single ‘Can’t Buy Me Love.’ When pressed by American journalists in 1966 to reveal the song’s ‘true’ meaning, Paul McCartney stated ‘I think you can put any interpretation you want on anything, but when someone suggests that ‘Can’t Buy Me Love’ is about a prostitute, I draw the line’.
