This Day in Music History: May 14

May 14, 2017

We cover all sorts of news, facts and historical and interesting facts that happened on this day in music history.

 

Today: May 14.

 

1969: During a UK tour, Fairport Convention's van crashed on the M1 motorway as they were travelling home from a show in Birmingham. In this accident, Martin Lamble, the band's drummer who was 19 years old and Jeannie Franklyn, the girlfriend of Richard Thompson were killed.

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1976: Keith Relf, the former lead singer of The Yardbirds, was electrocuted when he was tuning a guitar which was not properly earthed. This accident happened in his West London home where he was found by his 8 year old son, as he was still holding the plugged-in electric guitar. Some of The Yardbirds hits were: 'Heart Full of Soul', 'For Your Love' and 'Shapes of Things'.

 

1977: Leo Sayer topped the US singles chart with the song 'When I Need You'. It was Sayer's second US No.1 hit, which also made it to the top of the charts in the UK.

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1994: Scottish band Stiltskin topped the UK singles chart with the song 'Inside'. The song had been used on a Levi's TV Jeans commercial. It was their only No.1 and only Top 30 hit.

1998: American singer and actor Frank Sinatra died at the Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, Los Angeles at the age of 82, due to a heart attack he suffered from. He had his first hit in 1940, while he was working in the Swing era with Harry James and Tommy Dorsey, he won an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his performance in the movie 'From Here to Eternity' from 1953. Sinatra scored more than 25 Top 40 singles including the 1966 No.1 hit 'Strangers In The Night'. His 1969 single 'My Way', re-entered the UK charts 8 times and spent a total of 165 weeks on the UK chart.

 

2000: Tom Jones topped the UK album chart with 'Reload'. This made him the oldest artist that scored a UK No.1 album with new material.

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2015: Blues singer, songwriter and guitarist B.B. King died in his sleep at the age of 89 from a series of small strokes caused by type 2 diabetes. King is regarded as one of the most influential blues guitarists of all time, with Rolling Stone magazine placing him behind only Jimi Hendrix and Duane Allman in the list of the 100 greatest guitarists of all time.

 

Think we left some interesting fact out? You have anything to add? Is there anything else worth mentioning that happened on this day in music history? Write us in the comments below.

 

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