This Day in Music
On this day in music, April 3, 2011, British singer-songwriter Adele broke a UK chart record when her second album, 21, spent ten consecutive weeks at No.1. Featuring the hits “Rolling in the Deep” and “Set Fire to the Rain,” the album overtook the record for the longest chart-topping run by a female artist, as previously set by Madonna with her first greatest hits retrospective, 1990’s The Immaculate Collection. 21 went on to scoop multiple international awards including two Grammys – for Album of the Year and Best Pop Vocal Album.
In 2008, Mariah Carey surpassed Elvis Presley’s tally of 17 US No.1s when “Touch My Body” became her 18 chart-topping single. She was still two No.1s short of the record held by The Beatles, however, who topped the Billboard Hot 100 20 times.
In 1990, 66-year-old jazz singer Sarah Vaughan died from lung cancer. Nicknamed “Sassy” or “The Divine One,” Vaughan sang in Earl Hines’ big band in the early 1940s before going solo. She scored a Top 10 US hit in 1954 with “Make Yourself Comfortable,” but her best-known track is her indelible reworking of Erroll Garner’s jazz standard “Misty,” recorded four years later.
In 1979, singer-songwriter Kate Bush, then 20, kicked off her 28-date Tour Of Life at Liverpool’s Empire Theatre. Ticket holders were particularly lucky, given that it would be another 25 years before Bush committed herself to another extended run of concerts. In 2014, she returned to the stage for Before The Dawn, a series of performances that ran for 22 nights at London’s Hammersmith Apollo.
In 1965, Bob Dylan made his UK singles chart debut with “The Times They Are A-Changin’,” which rose to No.9. Interestingly, the much-covered title track of Dylan’s third album was never issued as a single in the US.
BORN ON APRIL 3
1924: Doris Day
1928: Don Gibson
1938: Jeff Barry (Songwriter)
1941: Jan Berry (Jan and Dean)
1944: Tony Orlando (Dawn)
1949: Richard Thompson
1962: Mike Ness (Social Distortion)
1962: Simon Raymonde (Cocteau Twins)
1968: Sebastian Bach (Skid Row)
1985: Leona Lewis
