What happened on January 23
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194383 yrs ago
Duke Ellington premieres Black, Brown and Beige
Ellington's ambitious suite debuted at his first Carnegie Hall concert. Critics were lukewarm and he never played the whole thing again, but its hymn-like "Come Sunday" became a jazz standard.
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196561 yrs ago
Petula Clark's "Downtown" hits No. 1 in America
Written and produced by Tony Hatch, the song made Clark the first British woman of the rock era to top the US chart. It went on to win a Grammy for Best Rock and Roll Recording.
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197650 yrs ago
David Bowie releases Station to Station
The album introduced the Thin White Duke, a cold, sharply dressed persona Bowie lived in for months. It reached No. 3 in the US and included the hit "Golden Years."
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198640 yrs ago
Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inducts its first class
The first inductees included Elvis Presley, Chuck Berry, Ray Charles, James Brown, Little Richard and Buddy Holly, with Robert Johnson and Jimmie Rodgers honored as early influences.
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198838 yrs ago
Michael Jackson's "The Way You Make Me Feel" hits No. 1
It was the third single in a row from Bad to top the Hot 100, arriving after five weeks in the top ten.
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1910116 yrs ago
Django Reinhardt is born in Belgium
After a 1928 caravan fire badly burned two fingers of his fretting hand, he relearned guitar using mostly two fingers, then co-founded the Quintette du Hot Club de France with Stéphane Grappelli.
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194878 yrs ago
Anita Pointer is born in Oakland, California
She sang lead on many Pointer Sisters hits, including "Fire," "Slow Hand" and "I'm So Excited," and co-wrote "Fairytale," which won the group a country Grammy.
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195076 yrs ago
Luis Alberto Spinetta is born in Buenos Aires
A founder of Argentine rock with bands like Almendra and Pescado Rabioso, he helped prove rock could be sung in Spanish. Argentina marks his birthday as National Musician's Day.
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198145 yrs ago
Composer Samuel Barber dies in New York
Barber won two Pulitzer Prizes, but he is best remembered for his Adagio for Strings, arranged from the slow movement of his String Quartet and championed by Toscanini and the NBC Symphony in 1938.
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20188 yrs ago
Hugh Masekela dies in Johannesburg at 78
The South African trumpeter scored a US No. 1 with "Grazing in the Grass" in 1968, and his 1987 "Bring Him Back Home" became an anthem of the campaign to free Nelson Mandela.
Nothing matches these filters on January 23.