This Day in Music
On this day in music, April 30, 1983, 68-year-old blues legend Muddy Waters died in his sleep. Born McKinley Morganfield in Mississippi to sharecropper parents, Waters began singing and playing guitar as a teenager but his career didn’t take off until he moved to Chicago in the 1940s, where he made his first recording. It was via a series of electric blues singles for the Chess label in the 1950s that Waters broke new ground; the biggest of his 16 US R&B hits was 1954’s “I’m Your Hoochie Coochie Man.” Often referred to as the “Father of Modern Chicago Blues,” Waters influenced many 60s British groups, including the Rolling Stones, who took their name from his 1950 single, “Rollin’ Stone.”
In 1991, Nirvana inked a deal with music mogul David Geffen’s DGC label for an advance payment of $290,000, which financed their breakthrough second album, Nevermind. The Seattle-based grunge rock pioneers had previously recorded for Sub Pop, a local indie label.
In 1966, Aftermath, The Rolling Stones’ first album of entirely original material, topped the UK chart. Considered a watershed moment in the band’s history, its 14 songs were all written by Mick Jagger and Keith Richards.
In 2015, 76-year-old soul singer Ben E. King passed away. Born Benjamin Earl Nelson in North Carolina, he first made his mark with The Drifters, achieving a US No.1 and UK No.2 hit with 1960’s “Save The Last Dance For Me.” That same year, King left the group to begin a successful solo career that brought him two No.1s on the R&B chart: 1961’s “Stand By Me” (a UK No.1 upon its reissue in 1987), and 1975’s “Supernatural Thing.”
In 2022, country star Naomi Judd died at the age of 76. The singer and actress rose to fame in 1980 with The Judds, a duo with her daughter, Wynonna. Together, they scored nine CMA Awards, five Grammys, and multiple No.1 hits on the US and Canadian country charts. The Judds were inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame just one day after Naomi’s death.
In 1977, Led Zeppelin broke the world record for the number of people attending a rock concert when 76,229 people saw them play the Pontiac Silverdome in Michigan. The feat, ratified by the Guinness Book of Records, had previously been held by another British band; The Who, who were seen and heard by a crowd of 75,962 at the same venue in December 1975.
In 1983, Spandau Ballet scored their only UK No.1 when “True,” the title track of their third album, began a month-long run at the summit of the singles chart. It was also the band’s first single to crack Billboard’s Hot 100, where it made the Top 10.
BORN ON APRIL 30:
1943: Bobby Vee
1948: Wayne Kramer (MC5)
1953: Merrill Osmond (The Osmonds)
1957: Wonder Mike (The Sugarhill Gang)
1962: Robert Reynolds (The Mavericks)
1969: Paulo ‘Destructor’ Jr (Sepultura)
1971: Darren Emerson (Underworld)
1981: Justin Vernon (Bon Iver)
1982: Lloyd Banks (G-Unit)
1992: Travis Scott
