This Day in Music
On this day in music, March 20, 2020, 81-year-old country music icon, Kenny Rogers, passed away. Born in Houston, TX, Rogers first tasted fame as part of the country-rock quintet, First Edition, which scored several US chart hits between 1967 and 1973. Launching his solo career in 1975, Rogers went on to score over 120 hit singles and sell more than 100 million records. His most famous songs were the US chart-toppers “Lady” and “Islands In The Stream,” the latter a duet with Dolly Parton. He was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame in 2013.
In 1991, Michael Jackson signed the biggest deal in recording history when Sony Corp
awarded him with a $1 billion contract. The unprecedented agreement guaranteed the “Thriller” singer an advance payment of $5 million per album and also gave him a 25% royalty rate based on retail sales.
In 1993, Jamaican artist Shaggy (real name Orville Richard Burrell) saw his debut single “Oh Carolina” top the UK pop chart. The song was a cover of a 1960 Prince Buster-produced Ska hit by the Folkes Brothers. It was the first of four UK No.1s for the Kingston-born performer.
In 2017, Ed Sheeran reached the summit of the UK singles chart with “Shape of You.” In December 2018, it became the first song to hit two billion streams on Spotify and to date is the most streamed song on the music platform.
In 1977, glam rock pioneers T.Rex played their final concert at The Locarno in Portsmouth, UK. The show closed out their Dandy In The Underworld tour, which featured support act The Damned. In September of that year, the band’s leader, Marc Bolan, was killed in a car crash.
In 1960, Elvis Presley began his first recording session 18 days after his discharge from the US Army. The session took place in RCA Studios Nashville, where the Memphis singer cut the soon-to-be No.1 comeback single, “Stuck On You.”
In 1982, Joan Jett And The Blackhearts topped the Billboard Hot 100 with “I Love Rock ‘n’ Roll,” a cover of a 1975 single by the UK band The Arrows. It spent seven weeks at No. 1 and reached No. 4 in the UK.
BORN ON MARCH 20
1917: Vera Lynn
1936: Lee “Scratch” Perry
1951: Carl Palmer (Emerson, Lake & Palmer)
1959: Richard Drummie (Go West)
1968: Fredrik Schnfeldt (The Wannadies)
1972: Alex Kapranos (Franz Ferdinand)
1976: Chester Bennington (Linkin Park)
