Author Archives: dcaligari

Summer is a promissory note signed in June, its long days spent and gone before you know it, and due to be repaid next January. Hal Borland Today is the first day of Summer, also known as the Summer Solstice. It’s the longest day of the year (and the shortest night). Everyone go outside andContinue reading “The song sings itself”

June 19, 1976 –The original emo boy, Eric Carmen’s single Never Gonna’ Fall in Love Again went to number one on the Billboard Charts on this date. Once again, Carmen uses (steals) a piece of classical music – this time, the melody line from Rachmaninoff’s Symphony No. 2 for this song. It comes from theContinue reading “Gonna’ Fall in Love Again topped the charts”

June 19, 1954 – The Tasmanian Devil, Taz, made his debut in the Looney Tunes cartoon, Devil May Hare, on this date. While Robert McKimson and his team were discussing new adversaries for Bugs Bunny, animator Sid Marcus suggested offhandedly that they have used everything except a Tasmanian devil. They looked the animal up inContinue reading “Devil May Hare premiered”

June 19, 1957 –The classic 50s teenage-horror film, I Was a Teenage Werewolf, starring Michael Landon, opened on this date. American International Pictures released this on a double bill with Invasion of the Saucer Men with the tag line “We DARE You To See The Most Amazing Pictures of Our Time!“

June 19, 1976 –HBO launched the series, Standing Room Only (SRO) with a taped special by Bette Midler on this date. The original HBO presentation was shown “complete and uncut, minus any editing or interruption” (per the June 1976 HBO On Air guide), lasting nearly two-and-a-half hours. When it was shown on broadcast television laterContinue reading “The Bette Midler special premiered”

June 18, 1971 –The Nike “swoosh” logo was created in 1971 by a graphic design student Carolyn Davidson and was purchased by Blue Ribbon for $35. The intention was to convey motion in its design. it was first used by Nike on this date. (She was later given around 500 shares in the company whichContinue reading “I guess money went further back then”

June 18, 1942 –Sir James Paul McCartney, CH, MBE, singer-songwriter, composer, multi-instrumentalist, entrepreneur, record and film producer, poet, painter, and animal rights activist, was born on this date. McCartney is listed in Guinness World Records as the “most successful musician and composer in popular music history.” And now it appears that he has been reducedContinue reading “The say it’s your birthday”

June 18, 1948 –Goodbye to our old 78’s A CBS employee named Edward Wallerstein walked into a room at the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel in New York with Goddard Lieberson, the president of Columbia Records and publicly unveiled its new long-playing phonograph record, the 33 1/3, on this date. Unlike the standard 10-inch 78 rpm record, whichContinue reading “It’s just cool to be able to touch it and feel it.”