11 ready-to-read segments for January 10, lead story first. Free to use on air; a quick credit to Today in Tunes is appreciated.
On this day in 1956, 70 years ago: Elvis Presley records "Heartbreak Hotel." At his first session for RCA in Nashville, with Chet Atkins on guitar and Floyd Cramer on piano, Elvis cut the song he had brought along himself. It became his first million-seller. Here's Elvis Presley with “Heartbreak Hotel.”
On this day in 1960, 66 years ago: Stravinsky premieres Movements for Piano and Orchestra. Stravinsky conducted soloist Margrit Weber at New York's Town Hall. The compact, ten-minute work builds everything from a single twelve-tone row.
On this day in 1976, 50 years ago: C. W. McCall's "Convoy" tops the Hot 100. The trucker anthem took the top spot from the Bay City Rollers' "Saturday Night," giving C. W. McCall his first No. 1, and it stayed there for one week.
On this day in 1977, 49 years ago: The Ramones release Leave Home. Their second album, recorded in New York on a budget of about $10,000, was the band's first to make the UK albums chart. "Carbona Not Glue" was pulled about a month before release because Carbona is a trademarked brand.
On this day in 1977, 49 years ago: Muddy Waters releases Hard Again. Produced by Johnny Winter, who also played guitar, the comeback record was cut in three days, put Waters back on the album chart and won a Grammy.
On this day in 1927, 99 years ago: Johnnie Ray is born in Dallas, Oregon. Partly deaf since childhood, he poured raw emotion into his singing. His 1952 two-sided hit "Cry" sold over two million copies and made him a teen idol.
On this day in 1935, 91 years ago: Baritone Sherrill Milnes is born in Illinois. He sang at the Metropolitan Opera for more than three decades from 1965 and became one of the leading Verdi baritones of the 1970s and '80s.
On this day in 1945, 81 years ago: Rod Stewart is born in North London. After fronting the Faces, he topped the US and UK charts simultaneously in 1971 with "Maggie May," a song first issued as a B-side.
On this day in 1976, 50 years ago: Howlin' Wolf dies in Illinois at 65. The towering Chicago bluesman, famous for a growling voice and records like "Smokestack Lightning" and "Spoonful," died at a veterans' hospital in Hines, Illinois.
On this day in 2016, 10 years ago: David Bowie dies in New York at 69. The English singer-songwriter and actor, one of rock's great shape-shifters, had released his final album, Blackstar, just two days before he died.
On this day in 2025, 1 years ago: Soul singer Sam Moore dies at 89. Half of Sam & Dave, he sang on the Stax classics "Hold On, I'm Comin'" and the Grammy-winning "Soul Man." He died in Coral Gables, Florida.
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