Music History Today: March 15, 2022

March 15, 1976: KISS released their album Destroyer, featuring "Detroit Rock City" and "Beth."

The pressure was on Kiss for their fifth release, and the band knew it. Their breakthrough, Alive!, was going to be hard to top, so instead of trying to recreate a concert setting in the studio, they went the opposite route.

 

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Destroyer is one of Kiss' most experimental studio albums, but also one of their strongest and most interesting. Alice Cooper/Pink Floyd producer Bob Ezrin was on hand, and he strongly encouraged the band to experiment. 

Read more: Allmusic

March 15, 1956: The musical My Fair Lady opened on Broadway at the Mark Hellinger Theatre.

My Fair Lady made its debut on Broadway to a rapturous critical response. It became the longest-running musical to date, and was a landmark in the genre.

Yet the road to the Mark Hellinger Theatre was long and arduous. The musical is based on George Bernard Shaw’s Pygmalion, of course, but Shaw was against allowing anyone to set his plays to music. 

Read more: Oxford University Press

March 15, 1968: Mark McGrath (Sugar Ray's frontman) was born in Hartford, Connecticut.

Mark McGrath is often derided by critics for being an alternative rock pinup boy. 

Mark McGrath

Since McGrath hasn't established a laudable body of work, his boyish good looks are often credited for the popularity of his band Sugar Ray. However, McGrath has evolved as an artist, from the derivative funk metal of Sugar Ray's early work to the warm croon he established with Sugar Ray's chart-topping "Fly" in 1997. 

Read more: Allmusic

March 15, 1969:  The Isley Brothers began their climb up the Billboard singles chart with "It's Your Thing."

After scoring one popular hit with the label, with the song "This Old Heart of Mine (Is Weak for You)", the Isleys felt typecast in the role as a second-tier act while well-established Detroit acts like The Temptations, The Miracles, and the Four Tops got more promotion from the label Motown. The brothers' decision to leave Motown came after a successful British tour, where they had a bigger fan base than in America. For Buddah Records, the Isleys recorded "It's Your Thing." 

Read more: Wikipedia

March 15, 2004: George Harrison was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. 

On March 15, 2004, George Harrison was posthumously inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. As part of the ceremony, an all-star band performed “While My Guitar Gently Weeps,” Mr. Harrison’s best-known Beatles song. The group featured Tom Petty and two other members of the Heartbreakers, as well as Jeff Lynne, Steve Winwood, Dhani Harrison (George’s son) and Prince, himself an inductee that year. 

Read more: New York Times

 

Detroit Rock City
KISS