Music History Today: June 15, 2020

June 15, 1999: Santana released the album Supernatural, which went to Number 1 thanks to hit singles like "Smooth," "Maria Maria," and "Put Your Lights On." 

‘Put Your Lights On’ is about watching out for the monsters under our beds and shining a light on them. It could be sex, drugs, or anything seeking to destroy us. 

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Fitting, considering both Santana and Everlast are extremely spiritual people who got rid of their own monsters under their beds. In fact, the last verse of ‘Put Your Lights On’ features a Muslim prayer recited by Everlast. 

Read more: Society of Rock

June 15, 1941: Harry Nilsson was born in Brooklyn, New York.

Struggling to make inroads into the songwriting world for more than half a decade, Nilsson had been a computer programmer at a bank in Los Angeles. He released “Everybody’s Talkin'” on his 1968 album, Aerial Ballet. It scratched No. 113 on Billboard’s Bubbling Under the Hot 100 chart.  

Read more: American Songwriter

June 15, 1964:  The Four Seasons released the single "Rag Doll."

Group member and chief songwriter Bob Gaudio wrote this. He was driving his car to the studio in New York City when he was stopped at a “three-minute light.” A little girl – with ragged clothes and dirty face – ran up to the car and cleaned the windshield. She did indeed look like a Rag Doll. .  

Read more: Do You Remember

June 15, 1965:  Bob Dylan started recording "Like A Rolling Stone" for his upcoming album Highway 61 Revisited.

Just one month before before recording “Like a Rolling Stone,” Dylan was in Europe wrapping up the solo acoustic tour chronicled in D.A. Pennebaker’s documentary Don’t Look Back. The electric “Subterranean Homesick Blues” had been out for three months and was all over the radio, but his concerts were completely unplugged affairs and protest songs like “The Lonesome Death of Hattie Carroll” and “The Times They Are-A Changin'” were still sprinkled into his set list. But somewhere on the tour, he began penning a long, free-form piece of writing. 

Read more: Rolling Stone

June 15, 1987:  Whitesnake released the single "Here I Go Again."

Back in the ‘80s, there was a time when MTV could make or break music artists. And one of the channel’s biggest success stories of the later part of the decade was undoubtedly Whitesnake, and their oft-played video for “Here I Go Again”. 

Read more: Consequence if Sound

Put Your Lights On

 Santana