A Brief History On November 28, 1967, the Number 1 song in the United States was “Daydream Believer” by the Monkees, a made-for-television rock band with its own zany television show. Certainly a Number 1 song is a big deal, and television gave us much iconic music and many iconic musical performances. Here 10 such instances are listed, some famous, some less famous. Digging Deeper 10. Rhythm Heritage, “Theme from S.W.A.T.,” 1976. Upon reaching Number 1 on the U.S. music charts in February of 1976, the “Theme from S.W.A.T.” became the first television theme song to hit that lofty height. Three months later…
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A Brief History On November 27, 1968, the Kentucky Colonels of the American Basketball Association, the ABA, a major league basketball rival of the National Basketball Association, the NBA, actually put a woman on the court during a real basketball game. Letting Penny Ann Early play was just a publicity stunt, but it was valid, making her the first (and so far only) woman to play on a men’s top professional American sports team. Digging Deeper If you are unfamiliar with the ABA, it was an upstart rival to the NBA that operated from 1967 to 1976 before it merged with the NBA. It used…
A Brief History On November 26, 1977, the people of southern Britain were astonished to find their afternoon televisions hijacked by an entity claiming to be “Vrillon.” (Some television viewers reported the entity’s name to be Gillon or Asteron.) Digging Deeper Hijacking a television signal, even for only 6 minutes (5:10 pm to 5:16 pm) is highly unusual to say the least. That the hijacker claimed to represent the “Ashtar Galactic Command” is even more bizarre. The hijacked signal came from the Hannington transmitter, a type of transmitter that does not receive its signal via cable but rather one that rebroadcasts…
A Brief History On November 21, 1959, music DJ and rock and roll legend Alan Freed was fired by WABC in New York for refusing to sign a statement that he had never taken “payola,” bribes from record companies to play and promote certain records. Digging Deeper Freed is credited with being the man who popularized the term “rock and roll” while he worked as a DJ and song promoter in Cleveland. In the 1950s, he appeared in movies that brought rock to the big screen, and he even had his own television show similar to what American Bandstand later became. Sadly, his television show was cancelled after only…
A Brief History On November 19, 1990, the pop “singing” duo Milli Vanilli was stripped of the Grammy music award they had been given for “Best New Artist.” After Fab Morvan and Rob Pilatus, who made up the duo, had met with success in Germany two years earlier, they managed to be successful internationally and in the U.S. as well with their debut album Girl You Know It’s True in 1990. Digging Deeper Their fame soon turned to notoriety when Chuck Phillips of the Los Angeles Times revealed that the vocals on the album were not actually sung by the duo. As…