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On this day in music, March 23, 1956, Elvis Presley released his self-titled debut album on the RCA Victor label. Its 12 songs were recorded in Nashville, New York, and Memphis between 1954 and 1956 and included one of Elvis’ most iconic numbers, “Blue Suede Shoes.” The album, which spent ten weeks at No.1 on the US album charts and went on to sell a million copies, marked the first time a rock‘n’roll record had topped the charts. It was issued in the UK under the title Rock ‘n’ Roll in 1959 by the HMV label and peaked at No 4 in the charts.

In 1972, The Concert For Bangladesh, featuring George Harrison together with Bob Dylan, Eric Clapton, Leon Russell, and fellow Beatle alum, Ringo Starr, premiered in New York. The film documented two benefit concerts held at Madison Square Garden in August 1971, organized by Harrison with Indian musician Ravi Shankar, to raise funds for refugees of the Bangladesh Liberation War. Marking the first major benefit concerts, the two shows raised a total of $250k (equivalent to approximately $1.8 million today).

In 2021, the trailblazing, Grammy-winning record producer Ethel Gabriel, who worked primarily for RCA Records, died at the age of 99. She was the first woman to become both an A&R executive and producer at a major record company. Artists she produced included Elvis Presley, Perry Como, and Henry Mancini.

In 1996, Celine Dion scored her second No.1 on the Billboard Hot 100 with “Because You Loved Me.” The Grammy-winning song was plucked from the French-Canadian artist’s fourth English language album, Falling Into You, and appeared as the theme song to the 1996 movie Up Close & Personal.

In 1991, R.E.M. topped the UK chart for the first time with their seventh album, Out Of Time. The Grammy-winning LP, which spent a total of 153 weeks on the UK chart, would hit No.1 in the US several weeks later, thanks in part to the single, “Losing My Religion,” which peaked at No.4 on the Billboard Hot 100.

In 1985, former Creedence Clearwater Revival frontman John Fogerty scored his first No.1 album as a solo artist with Centerfield. Arriving after a lengthy break from the music industry, the album marked Fogerty’s third solo album and first release in nine years.

In 1964, John Lennon published his first book, In His Own Write, in the UK. A collection of surreal poetry accompanied by cartoon illustrations, it became a bestseller in Britain, selling 300,000 copies.

BORN ON MARCH 23

1942: Jimmy Miller (Producer)
1944: Ric Ocasek (The Cars)
1944: Tony McPhee (The Groundhogs)
1948: David Olney (The X-Rays)
1953: Chaka Khan
1966 Marti Pellow (Wet Wet Wet)
1967: John Stohm (The Lemonheads)
1968: Damon Albarn (Blur, The Gorillaz)

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