This Day in Music
On this day in music, July 28, 1987, 19-year-old Australian actress Kylie Minogue (known best at the time for her work in the soap opera Neighbours) released her debut single – a dance-pop version of Gerry Goffin and Carole King’s “The Loco-Motion,” which was first recorded 25 years earlier by R&B singer Little Eva. The track quickly topped the Australian pop charts, while in the US, it marked the third time that the frequently-covered song had reached the Top 3. The song’s global success led Minogue to sign with the London-based production trio Stock, Aitken, and Waterman, who masterminded her debut album, helping to transform her into the most successful Australian female artist of all time.
In 1960, Roy Orbison made his British chart debut with the groundbreaking operatic rock ballad, “Only The Lonely.” The song would soon become the first of three UK No.1s for the American singer-songwriter. In the US, it got stuck at No.2, behind Brenda Lee’s “I’m Sorry.” When Elvis Presley and the Everly Brothers both turned down the song, Orbison, who co-wrote it, elected to release his own version.
In 1992, gangsta rap pioneer Ice T appeased angry law enforcement groups by announcing that his controversial song, “Cop Killer,” which he recorded with the LA heavy metal band Body Count, would be dropped from future copies of the outfit’s self-titled debut. The track resurfaced as a free single given away at Body Count gigs. Ironically, T (who was born Tracy Marrow) has since played a role as a detective in the NBC cop drama Law & Order: Special Victims Unit.
In 2020, influential British monthly music magazine, Q, was published for the final time. First hitting the newsstands in 1986, it was the brainchild of journalists Mark Ellen and David Hepworth, who also presented the 80s BBC TV music show, Whistle Test.
In 2014, Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers released their 13th studio album, Hypnotic Eye. A global best-seller, the LP stormed to the top of the Billboard 200 in the first week of its release, giving the band their first US No.1 album. Sadly, the Grammy-nominated title turned out to be the band’s final album, as Petty died in 2017.
In 2021, Dusty Hill, the 72-year-old singer and bassist of ZZ Top, passed away. Hill joined the long-bearded Texas trio (led by guitarist Billy Gibbons) in 1969, but it was after their third album, 1973’s Tres Hombres, that the band began to get noticed. In the 1980s, the blues-rockers achieved mainstream success, aided by eye-catching videos that received heavy rotation on MTV.
BORN ON JULY 28
1943: Rick Wright (Pink Floyd)
1943: Mike Bloomfield (Paul Butterfield Blues Band, Electric Flag)
1948: Gerald Casale (Devo)
1949: Steve Peregrin Took (Tyrannosaurus Rex)
1949: Simon Kirke (Free, Bad Company)
1965: Nick Banks (Pulp)
1974: Afroman
1986: Jacoby Dakota Shaddix (Papa Roach)
1990: Soulja Boy (Rapper)
