Author Archives: dcaligari

August 5, 1967 –Pink Floyd released their debut album, The Piper at the Gates of Dawn, on which most songs were penned by Syd Barrett, on this date. Two tracks on the album are credited to the band collectively and one track was written by Roger Waters. The studio album borrows its name from theContinue reading “Pink Floyd released their debut album”

National Mustard Day is observed on the first Saturday in August. In case you didn’t know, Mustard is a condiment made from the seeds of a mustard plant (white or yellow mustard, Sinapis hirta; brown or Indian mustard, Brassica juncea; or black mustard, B. nigra). So now you know, you may now go about yourContinue reading “So break out the hats and hooters!”

August 4, 1958 –The Billboard Hot 100 was published for the first time on this date. The first number-one song of the Hot 100 was Poor Little Fool by Ricky Nelson. The song was written by 17-year-old Sharon Sheeley when she was still attending high school in Newport Beach, California. Female songwriters were rare atContinue reading “Poor Little Fool topped the charts”

August 4, 1954 –Douglas Sirk’s first Technicolor gift for film goers, Magnificent Obsession, was released on this date. Rock Hudson never knew that Jane Wyman had served as an FBI informer under the code name T-10, providing the names of actors within the motion picture industry whom they believed to be communist sympathizers.

August 4, 1942 –The Paramount Picture film, Holiday Inn, directed by Mark Sandrich and starring Fred Astaire and Bing Crosby was released in theaters on this date. Kemmons Wilson, who founded the Holiday Inn motel chain in 1952, named it after this movie. Strangely enough, White Christmas was not expected to be a hit song.Continue reading “Holiday Inn premiered”

August 3, 1979 –The Talking Heads release their third album, Fear of Music, on this date. The album, produced by Brian Eno, was recorded in Chris Frantz and Tina Weymouth’s New York City loft where the band often rehearsed. They parked a mobile recording unit outside to record the tracks as they played from theContinue reading “Why stay in college? Why go to night school?”

August 3, 1963 –Allan Sherman released Hello Muddah, Hello Faddah (A Letter from Camp), in the US on this date. Sherman was a writer on The Steve Allen Show and created the game show I’ve Got a Secret. He went on to record comedy albums. The song won a 1964 Grammy Award for comedy. AndContinue reading “Ah, sweet mysteries of life.”

August 3, 1970 – Shelved for two years after a disastrous test screening at which audiences yelled at the screen and walked out of the theater, Warner Brothers finally released Performance, directed by Donald Cammell, and Nicolas Roeg, and starring James Fox, Mick Jagger, Anita Pallenberg, and Michèle Breton, on this date in New YorkContinue reading “Performance finally premiered”

August 3, 1929 –Four famous vaudevillian performers took a chance on the new medium of ‘talking pictures‘ with the general release of the film, The Cocoanuts, starring the Four Marx Brothers — Chico, Groucho, Harpo and Zeppo, on this date. The film has the first use of the overhead camera shot (from the roof ofContinue reading “The first Marx Brothers Movie premiered”

August 2, 1998 –Beastie Boys‘ fifth studio album Hello Nasty started a three week run at No. 1 on the Billboard Album Charts, on this date. This would be the band’s third U.S. No. 1 album. Some of the pioneering hip-hop acts that emerged in the early ‘80s distorted their vocals in innovative ways, butContinue reading “Hello Nasty topped the charts”