Kris Kristofferson is a man of many talents. He found himself within the pages of Sports Illustrated in 1958 for his athletic prowess at Pomona College, and his academics were strong enough to subsequently earn him a Rhodes scholarship to Oxford. After that, he spent time as a helicopter pilot in the U.S. Army, and upon leaving the military he embarked on a career as a songwriter, which ultimately transitioned into a career as a singer-songwriter.
Since the sad, seemingly sudden, and all-too-soon death of David Bowie last year, Rhino has continued with the reissue campaign that had begun before his passing, giving fans an opportunity to enjoy their hero’s work with newly-remastered sound. What we’ve also been doing is releasing special limited 7” picture discs, and today brings the latest in the series: the 40th anniversary edition of SOUND AND VISION.
32 years ago today, Madonna’s sophomore album arrived at the top of the Billboard 200, giving her the first – but definitely not the last - #1 album of her career.
Although Madonna had found a fair amount of success with her self-titled debut album, she walked into the studio to record LIKE A VIRGIN with a couple of ringers in her court: producer Nile Rodgers helmed the record, and – even better – he brought his Chic compadres Bernard Edwards and Tony Thompson to play bass and drums, respectively. (If you’re wondering, no, they didn’t play on every track, but they’re definitely both in the mix on several tracks.) But the heart of the album was Madonna, of course. “When we did that album, it was the perfect union, and I knew it from the first day in the studio,” Rodgers said in Randy J. Taraborrelli’s book Madonna: An Intimate Biography. “The thing between us, man, it was sexual, it was passionate, it was creativity… It was pop.”
53 years ago today, the cast of Oliver! performed on The Ed Sullivan Show, giving a young up-and-comer named Davy Jones his first opportunity to shine on American TV.
Oh, right, and the Beatles played, too.
Last week was no fluke. Dr. Rhino is all about the alphabet! This week it’s the killer B’s…
ABOUT DR. RHINO
40 years ago today, one of the defining bands of the New York punk scene released their debut album.
When the band Television originally formed in 1973, the lineup consisted of Tom Verlaine (vocals, guitar, keyboards), Richard Lloyd (guitar, vocals), Richard Hell (vocals, bass), and Billy Ficca (drums), and the performances by the original foursome quickly made them NYC music legends, but it took them some time to successfully make the jump from the concert stage to the recording studio. An attempt to record demos for Island Records in 1974 with Brian Eno producing the band didn’t pan out –Verlaine has described Eno’s recordings of the band as “very cold and brittle,” with “no resonance” – and when Hell bid the band adieu in 1975, it was a little touch-and-go as to whether Television would ever deliver a debut album.
