This Day in Music
On this day in music, July 23, 2011, 27-year-old British singer-songwriter, Amy Winehouse, died, after a protracted struggle with drug and alcohol addiction. The award-winning Camden-born singer, whose expressive, smoky voice was seen as a throwback to legendary jazz divas like Dinah Washington and Billie Holiday, released her debut album Frank in 2003, but it wasn’t until her second LP, 2006’s Back To Black, that she garnered international acclaim. The album, which reflected Winehouse’s appreciation of 60s girl group pop as well as old-school soul music, netted her five Grammy awards.
In 1994, an asteroid was named after Frank Zappa, who had died in December of the previous year. Initially identified as “Asteroid 3834,” the small rocky celestial body was first discovered orbiting the sun between Mars and Jupiter in 1980 and was renamed “Zappafrank” in honor of the former Mothers Of Invention leader. Zappa wasn’t the first rock musician to be associated with an asteroid; those similarly honored include all four individual Beatles as well as Mike Oldfield, Eric Clapton, and Jean-Michel Jarre.
In 1989, drummer Ringo Starr toured for the first time since his days with The Beatles, beginning his itinerary with a show in Dallas, Texas. He was accompanied by an all-star supergroup, consisting of organist Billy Preston (who had played with The Beatles on their Apple rooftop concert in 1969), Eagles guitarist Joe Walsh, and saxophonist Clarence Clemons, of Bruce Springsteen’s E Street Band.
In 1996, 33-year-old keyboard player Rob Collins, best known for his work in The Charlatans, lost his life in a car accident. Famed for his swirling organ parts, which helped give The Charlatans’ music a psychedelic tinge, Collins had been driving back from a recording session in Wales for the group’s fifth album, Tellin’ Stories.
In 1984, The Cars released “Drive,” the third single from their Heartbeat City album. It proved to be the Boston band’s most commercially successful track; peaking at No.3 on Billboard’s Hot 100 and reaching the top position on the Adult Contemporary chart.
In 1966, Frank Sinatra’s Strangers In The Night became his first and only album to top the Billboard 200. The album – whose iconic title track hit the summit of the US singles chart and won two Grammy awards – would prove the most commercially successful of his career, shifting over a million copies in America.
BORN ON JULY 23
1946: Andy Mackay (Roxy Music)
1947: Tony Joe White
1961: Martin Gore (Depeche Mode)
1964: Nick Menza (Megadeth)
1965: Slash (Guns N’ Roses)
1970: Sam Watters (Color Me Badd)
1971: Alison Krauss
1973: Fran Healy (Travis)
1980: Michelle Williams (Destiny’s Child)
