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The week in music history brought to you by MusicGoldmine.com. Just a couple of highlights from this week in music history! JAN 2: Today in 1989, Poison was at #1 with "Every Rose Has Its Thorn". It is their only #1 single in the U.S. Who saw Poison on the stadium tour this past summer?! JAN 11: Jeff Beck has passed away at age 78 after a short illness. In 1965, he joined The Yardbirds to replace Eric Clapton. By 1967, he was out of the band and formed his own group The Jeff Beck Group, which would include Rod Steward and Ronnie...

Talent-spotting television show American Idol, produced by Simon Fuller's 19 Entertainment, has been beamed into the homes of U.S. television viewers for 20 years now. It has been so successful that it has also spawned versions in no less than 70 countries. It has also made -- or broken -- careers for many young (and a few older) artists.  Success on the show launched a major career for first season winner Kelly Clarkson, who is a two-time Grammy award winner with hits including “A Moment Like This”, "Because Of You", “Stronger (What Doesn’t Kill You)” and more. Today she also hosts her own talk show....

The week in music history brought to you by MusicGoldmine.com. Just a couple of highlights from this week in music history! DEC 26: Happy birthday to Lars Ulrich of Metallica, born today in 1963! In 1981, he met James Hetfield and the two formed Metallica. They are the two sole remaining original members. Ulrich along with his bandmates was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2009. Photo courtesy: Raph_PH [https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/deed.en]   DEC 31: Happy 80th birthday to Andy Summers of The Police, born today in 1942!He began his career in the mid-60s as a guitarist in London for Zoot...

Is it about the occasional crackle and pop that lends a nostalgic note to your day? Maybe the liner notes and photos you can actually see? How you can hold it in your hand? Whether it's nostalgia for the records they used to listen to in their youth or the sound and feel, vinyl is big with music buyers and continues to get bigger.  The burgeoning return of vinyl record sales has been well-documented in recent years. The RIAA reported in their 2021 year end recap that vinyl record sales grew 61% over 2020 and, in their 2022 mid-year report, vinyl...

Tom Zutaut arrived as a record label A&R (Artists & Repertoire) man in an unlikely way. Given an entry-level job at Elektra Records at the beginning of the 80s, he felt that the label's current artist roster was weak and that they needed to sign new artists. He first suggested Joan Jett. No, they said. Jett would soon hit it big in her post-Runaways  life with a smash cover of The Arrows "I Love Rock 'n' Roll." After that he pegged The Human League as future hitmakers in the U.S. after seeing their fledgling but promising start in the U.K. No, they said, and the U.K. outfit went on to...