Today in Music History for Dec. 2:
In 1923, soprano Maria Callas, renowned for her dramatic intensity and versatility, was born in New York City. She moved to Greece at the age of 13, studying at the Royal Conservatory in Athens. Callas’ professional debut took place in Verona, Italy, in 1947. Callas performed with most of the world’s major opera companies, including the Metropolitan in New York, where she made her debut in 1956. She died in 1977.
In 1943, "Carmen Jones" opened on Broadway. It was Oscar Hammerstein the Second’s contemporary reworking of the Bizet opera "Carmen" with an all-black cast.
In 1949, Gene Autry’s "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer" hit the pop charts.
In 1952, Lois Marshall, one of Canada’s leading sopranos in the 1950s and ’60s, made her New York debut at Town Hall.
In 1969, singer Cindy Birdsong, a member of "The Bluebelles" and later "The Supremes," was kidnapped in Hollywood by a maintenance man. She escaped uninjured a few hours later by jumping from a moving car.
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In 1970, rock singer Eric Burdon announced what was billed as a "curb the clap" campaign to raise money for the Los Angeles Free Clinic. Burdon’s manager said the performer had had venereal disease four or five times and was determined to wipe out what the manager termed "the No. 1 sickness in the record business today."
In 1971, folk and blues singer Taj Mahal gave a concert for death row inmates at the Wilmington State Penitentiary in Delaware.
In 1973, the first day of mail-in ticket requests for a Bob Dylan tour caused a five-block-long traffic jam outside a San Francisco post office. Thousands of orders were returned after all 658,000 available seats on the U.S. tour were sold.
In 1973, "The Who" spent the night in jail in Montreal after causing $6,000 worth of damage to a hotel room. The incident inspired John Entwistle to write "Cell Block Number Seven."
In 1974, Canadian composer and pianist S.C. Eckhardt-Gramatte died in Stuttgart, West Germany, at the age of 75. She had fallen on a bus and died in hospital during a bone-setting operation.
In 1979, singers Kris Kristofferson and Rita Coolidge were divorced after six years of marriage.
In 1979, Stevie Wonder performed a three-hour show at New York’s Metropolitan Opera House. Joining him on selections from his current album, "Journey Through the Secret Life of Plants," was the National Afro-American Philharmonic Orchestra.
In 1982, folksinger and songwriter David Blue died while jogging in New York City’s Greenwich Village. He was 41.
In 1983, Michael Jackson’s 14-minute horror-themed mini-movie "Thriller" debuted on MTV. The production budget was $600,000, more than 20 times the cost of the average music video at the time. The video resurrected Jackson’s year-old "Thriller" album, putting it back in the top spot on the charts. "The Making of Thriller," had sold more than 750 million copies on tape within six months of the video’s debut.
In 1985, Roger Daltrey performed his first North American solo concert since the breakup of "The Who." He is reported to have forgotten the lyrics to "Summertime Blues" on stage.
In 1986, Jerry Lee Lewis checked into the Betty Ford Clinic to overcome an addiction to painkillers.
In 1986, Desi Arnaz, the Cuban-born singer-bandleader who was best-known for his role as Ricky Ricardo in the television series "I Love Lucy," died in Hollywood, Calif., at age 69.
In 1986, bandleader Horace Heidt, whose "Musical Knights" were featured on numerous radio shows in the 1930s and ’40s, died in Los Angeles at the age of 85.
In 1986, Annie Lennox of the "Eurythmics" ripped off her bra while performing their hit "Missionary Man" in Birmingham, England.
In 1988, former "April Wine" lead singer Myles Goodwyn made his first live appearance in more than four years in a concert at a Halifax club. He had not performed on stage since the band's breakup in June 1984. He had led the group through 18 albums over 15 years.
In 1989, Stevie Wonder postponed a concert appearance in Africa to give the commencement address at Michigan State University. He told the graduates the U.S. must remain an example to other countries.
In 1990, pioneering American composer Aaron Copland died in Westchester, N.Y., at age 90. He used folk songs and jazz in writing such plainspoken classics as "Appalachian Spring," "Rodeo" and "Billy the Kid." Colleagues called him the dean of American music. He was a major force in gaining international recognition for 20th century American composers. Copland wrote two operas, six ballets and eight film scores, including the Oscar-winning music for William Wyler’s "The Heiress" in 1948.
In 1992, the troubles continued for "Guns N’ Roses" on the band’s South American tour. At a concert in Santiago, Chile, 10 people were hurt and 178 people were arrested. The group’s departure from the country was delayed for about nine hours while authorities searched their private plane for drugs. Nothing was found.
In 1997, acoustic guitarist Michael Hedges was found dead in his car beside a northern California highway following an apparent accident. He was 43. His 1984 album, "Aerial Boundaries," was nominated for a Grammy award.
In 1998, bassist Bob Haggart, one of the last survivors of "Bob Crosby’s Bobcats" band of the 1930s and ’40s, died in Venice, Fla., at age 84.
In 1998, Country Music Television debuted the music video "That Don't Impress Me Much" in which Canadian country star Shania Twain goes strawberry blonde.
In 2000, "Smashing Pumpkins" played their last concert, at a club in Chicago. It was the same club where they had played their first show 13 years earlier. They reunited in 2006 and performed live for the first time on May 22, 2007 in Paris. Singer Billy Corgan remains the only original member.
In 2001, actress-singer Julie Andrews, pianist Van Cliburn, composer-producer Quincy Jones and opera singer Luciano Pavarotti were recognized during the annual Kennedy Center Honours in Washington.
In 2006, Mariska Veres, singer for the Dutch group "Shocking Blue," died in The Hague, Netherlands, at the age of 59.
In 2007, British quintet the "Spice Girls" kicked off their reunion tour in Vancouver.
In 2007, "The Beach Boys" founder Brian Wilson, Diana Ross, pianist Leon Fleisher, comedian-actor-musician Steve Martin and director Martin Scorsese were the latest U.S. artists to receive Kennedy Center honours for their career achievements.
In 2008, Odetta, the folk singer with the powerful voice who moved audiences and influenced fellow musicians for a half-century, died. She was 77. With her booming, classically trained voice and spare guitar, Odetta gave life to the songs of workingmen and slaves, farmers and miners, housewives and washerwomen, blacks and whites.
In 2009, co-founder Eric Woolfson of "The Alan Parsons Project" died of cancer in London. He was 64. Although Parsons' name was on the band, Woolfson would co-write and perform on the albums that Parsons would produce and engineer. Their hits included "I Wouldn't Want To Be Like You," "Games People Play," and "Eye in the Sky." Woolfson sang lead on the 1981 hit "Time." The band broke up in the 1990s and Woolfson worked as a music producer and composer of musicals.
In 2009, "I Dreamed a Dream," the first album for "Britain's Got Talent" runner-up Susan Boyle, debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 Album chart selling 701,000 copies. It was, at the time, the best debut for a woman since SoundScan started tracking sales in 1991. It stayed in top spot for six straight weeks and sold over three million copies in North America alone and over eight million worldwide.
In 2010, Lea Michele, star of the Fox TV musical series "Glee," received a "triple threat" award during Billboard's annual "Women in Music" luncheon in New York City honouring Fergie of "The Black Eyed Peas."
In 2010, singer Rihanna sat atop Billboard's newly created Social 50 chart. Canadian teen sensation Justin Bieber was second. The chart is based on a formula that included the number of friends, fans or followers on social networking sites, along with weekly artist page views and weekly song plays on MySpace, YouTube, Facebook and iLike.
In 2010, German prosecutors said two young German computer hackers were arrested for allegedly stealing pop songs from Lady Gaga, Justin Timberlake, Ke$ha and Kelly Clarkson.
In 2010, Ontario passed the Ticket Speculation Act to stop ticket retailers from selling and then reselling tickets to the same concert or event. In 2009, U.S. entertainment giant Ticketmaster redirected customers looking for tickets to reseller TicketsNow, which it owns.
In 2011, country music crossover starlett Taylor Swift was honoured as Woman of the Year at the Billboard Women in Music event in New York. Also rapper/singer Nicki Minaj was honoured as Rising Star.
In 2014, Rolling Stones' saxophone player Bobby Keys, who also performed on recordings with John Lennon and Eric Clapton, died after a lengthy illness at his home in Franklin, Tenn. He was 70. Originally from Texas, Keys started playing with Buddy Holly and The Crickets and went on to become a top session and touring musician.
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The Canadian Press
