Every song competes with the music of the past, present and future. Within the world of song is competition that extends itself worldwide. Each country sports its own special events tapping into raw, new talent. Winning entrants, as well as many runner-ups, go on to special contracts, further competitions and/or entertainment positions around the globe. Not all recording artists begin with a competition. Some talented musicians just happen to be at the right place at the right time while others continue to struggle in hopes of reaching the top of the Billboard charts. Or, there just comes along the right song, maybe a new song or one recorded decades earlier to once again soar to the top.
1964 Sandie Shaw had her first UK No.1 single with the Burt Bacharach song '(There's) Always Something There To Remind Me'. Shaw is an English pop singer, who was one of the most successful British female singers of the 1960s. In 1967, she was the first British act to win the Eurovision Song Contest. She has been described as "the barefoot pop princess of the 1960s". Sandi Shaw announced her retirement from music in April 2013.
1966 The Supremes became the first female group to have a No.1 album on the US chart with 'The Supremes a Go Go', knocking The Beatles 'Revolver', from the top of the charts. The album was the first album by an all-female group to reach number-one on the Billboard 200 album charts in the United States. Remaining on the Billboard album chart for 60 weeks, it sold over 1 million copies in the United States and about 3.5 million copies world-wide, making it their 2nd best selling album behind their chart busting Greatest Hits which sold over 3 million copies in the states and over 6 million copies world-wide and held onto the #1 spot for 5 weeks on Billboard Magazine.
1966 The Beach Boys ‘Good Vibrations’ made its debut on the US singles chart. Written by Brian Wilson and Mike Love, the track was recorded over 6 weeks in four different Los Angeles studios, at a cost of over $16,000. The recording engineer would later say that the last take sounded exactly like the first, six months earlier. The record would reach No.1 on the US charts in December 1966.
1969 Led Zeppelin II was released on Atlantic Records in the UK. The Jimmy Page-produced album which was recorded over six months between four European and three American tours, peaked at No.1 in both the UK and US, going on to sell over 12 million copies in the US alone, (and spending 138 weeks on the UK chart). The album is now recognized by writers and music critics as one of the greatest and most influential rock albums ever recorded.
1988 Phil Collins started a two week run at No.1 on the US singles chart with 'Groovy Kind Of Love', his 6th US No.1. In 1966, this was also recorded by Patti LaBelle And The Bluebelles, but the version recorded by The Mindbenders, who released it as their first single without lead singer Wayne Fontana, became the hit. Collins' version was used in the movie Buster, where Collins plays the title role of Buster Edwards. Collins put together the soundtrack using various '60s songs. A child actor, Collins was wary about taking a movie role after becoming famous as a musician, and he made sure the song didn't appear until the end of the film so musical perceptions wouldn't taint his performance.
1996 It was announced that, "The Beatles were now bigger than The Beatles". The statement was based on sales so far this year, having sold 6,000,000 albums from their back catalog and a combined total of 13,000,000 copies of ‘The Beatles Anthology 1’ and ‘The Beatles Anthology 2’. With the release of ‘The Beatles Anthology 3’ a week away, it was anticipated that total Beatles album sales for 1996 would exceed 20 million. A poll showed 41 percent of sales were to teenagers who were not born when The Beatles officially called it quits in 1970.
2005 Waterloo by Abba was voted the best song in the history of the Eurovision Song Contest. ABBA won the contest for Sweden in 1974. Viewers in 31 countries across Europe voted during a special show in Copenhagen to celebrate the annual event's 50th anniversary.
2008 A homeless man claimed a £2,000 reward by returning a waxwork head of ex-Beatle Sir Paul McCartney which had been left on a train. Anthony Silva found the item in a bin at Reading station after auctioneer Joby Carter left it under a seat at Maidenhead station. The homeless man thought it was a Halloween mask and had been using it as a pillow before realizing what it was. The wax model sold the following week for £5,500 at auction.
And the music goes on beating to the rhythm of the changing times...
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