Music History Today: June 6, 2022

June 6, 2009: "Don't Stop Believin'" from the pilot episode of the TV show Glee debuted at Number 4 on the Billboard Hot 100.

Glee focused on a high school show choir, also known as a glee club, set within the fictional William McKinley High School in Lima, Ohio.

Cast of Glee

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The pilot episode covered the formation of the club and introduced the main characters. The episode featured covers of numerous songs sung on-screen by the characters. 

Read more: Wikipedia

June 6, 1956: Billie Holiday begins the final recording for her studio album Lady Sings the Blues. 

As DownBeat writer Nat Hentoff said of Billie Holiday, “The experience of listening to her is unanalyzable – either you feel it or you don’t.” 

Billie Holiday

And Lady Sings The Blues is living proof of that notion. Recorded over two separate sessions in Los Angeles in September 1954 and over two days in June 1956 in New York City this is an album that as close to a musical autobiography as you can get. 

Read more: U Discover Music

 

June 6, 1970: Creedence Clearwater Revival made it to Number 4 on the US music chart with their double-sided A record "Up Around the Bend" / "Run Through the Jungle."

The title and lyrics of "Run Through the Jungle", as well as the year it was released (1970), have led many to assume that the song is about the Vietnam War. However, in a 2016 interview, Fogerty explained that the song is actually about the proliferation of guns in the United States. 

Read more: Wikipedia

June 6, 1981: Rush debuts on the Billboard Hot 100 at Number 85 with "Tom Sawyer." 

Songwriters can usually look back at their career and pinpoint the moment their star truly headed skywards.

Rush 1981

For David Bowie, it was ‘Space Oddity‘ that launched his fame into overdrive, for Radiohead it was ‘Creep’, for The Beatles, well, it was pretty much any of them. The Canadian prog-rockers Rush can similarly point to the song that grabbed their career by the scruff of the neck and threw them into a new plane of pop music stardom; ‘Tom Sawyer.’ 

Read more: Far Out Magazine

June 6, 1987: The glam anthem "Rock the Night" by Europe moved into the Top 40 section of the American music chart. 

"Rock the Night" was released in two different versions, just more than a year and a half apart from each other; in 1985 as a single from the soundtrack to the Swedish film On the Loose, and in 1986 as the second international single from the album The Final Countdown. 

Read more: Wikipedia

 

Don't Stop Believin'
Cast of Glee