Today's birthdays:
Keith Urban, 56.
Keith Lionel Urban is an Australian and American singer, guitarist, and songwriter known for his work in country music. Recognized with four Grammy Awards, Urban also received fifteen Academy of Country Music Awards, including the Jim Reeves International Award,thirteen CMA Awards, and six ARIA Music Awards. Urban wrote and performed the song "For You" from the film Act of Valor, which earned him nominations at both the 70th Golden Globe Awards and at the 18th Critics' Choice Awards in the respective Best Original Song categories.
Urban has released 11 studio albums (one of which was released only in Australia), as well as one album with the Ranch. He has charted 37 singles on the US Hot Country Songs chart, 18 of which went to number one, counting a duet with Brad Paisley ("Start a Band") and the 2008 single "You Look Good in My Shirt". Urban also worked with numerous artists from different music genres, such as Pink, Nelly Furtado, Jason Derulo, Julia Michaels, and country artists like Dolly Parton, Dixie Chicks, Carrie Underwood, Martina McBride, Eric Church, and Reba McEntire.
In 1991, he released a self-titled debut album, charting four singles in Australia before moving to the United States the following year. He started a band known as The Ranch, which recorded one studio album on Capitol Nashville and charted two singles on the US Billboard Hot Country Songs chart.
Still signed to Capitol, Urban made his solo American debut in 1999 with a second eponymous album. Certified platinum in the US by the RIAA, it produced his first number one on the Hot Country Songs chart with "But for the Grace of God". "Somebody Like You", the first single from his second Capitol album Golden Road (2002), was named by Billboard as the biggest country hit of the 2000s decade. The album's fourth single, "You'll Think of Me" featuring his nephew and fellow country artist Rory Gilliatte, earned him his first Grammy Award. 2004's Be Here, his third American album became his highest-selling album, being certified 4× Platinum. Love, Pain & the Whole Crazy Thing was released in 2006, containing "Once in a Lifetime" as well as his second Grammy Award-winning song, "Stupid Boy". A greatest hits package titled Greatest Hits: 18 Kids followed in late 2007. Defying Gravity and Get Closer were released on 31 March 2009 and 16 November 2010, respectively. In September 2013, he released the album Fuse, which produced four more number ones on the Country Airplay chart. "John Cougar, John Deere, John 3:16" was released in June 2015 as the lead single of his eighth American studio album, Ripcord. The album later produced the Country Airplay chart number-one hits "Break on Me", "Wasted Time", and "Blue Ain't Your Color", with the latter also becoming Urban's longest-reigning number one on the Hot Country Songs chart, spending 12 weeks atop the chart. His tenth album, Graffiti U, was released in 2018 and includes the Top 10 hit "Coming Home". His eleventh album The Speed of Now Part 1 was released in 2020 and includes the global hit "One Too Many" with Pink, in addition to Country Airplay top ten hits "We Were" and "God Whispered Your Name".
Urban was a coach on the Australian version of the singing competition The Voice and a judge on American Idol. In October 2013, Urban introduced his own signature line of guitars and accessories.
On this day today:
1911 - Gospel singer Mahalia Jackson is born in New Orleans, Louisiana.
1958 - The first rock concert in Germany is held in Berlin, and it doesn't go well, as agitated youth fight during a performance by Bill Haley and his Comets. By the time police clear the Berlin Sportpalast, where the concert is held, five policemen and six audience members are seriously injured.
1961 - Bob Dylan signs with Columbia Records, his first recording contract.
1963 - Natalie Merchant (lead singer of 10,000 Maniacs) is born in Jamestown, New York.
1964 - The Beatles record "Honey Don't" for their Beatles For Sale album after the song's writer, Carl Perkins, visits them in the studio. They also record "What You're Doing," and Another Beatles Christmas Record (a cover of "Jingle Bells," along with holiday greetings to fans).
1965 - The Beatles are awarded Members of the British Empire (MBE) medals from Queen Elizabeth II in a ceremony held at Buckingham Palace. John Lennon claims they smoked marijuana in the bathroom before receiving the awards, although George Harrison said it was just tobacco. Harrison and Paul McCartney put the awards on their jackets for the Sgt. Pepper album cover; Lennon sends his back in 1969.
1968 - Janis Joplin appears on TV for the first time when she performs on the variety show Hollywood Palace with Big Brother & the Holding Company.
1970 - Elton John releases "Your Song," which becomes his first hit.
1973 - The Who release Quadrophenia in the UK (the American debut is a week later). Like their 1969 album Tommy, it is a rock opera, this time centered on the character Jimmy, a mod on a search for meaning.
1974 - "Then Came You," a duet between The Spinners and Dionne Warwick, goes to #1 in America. It's the only chart-topper for either act.
1974 - Barry White's album Can't Get Enough hits #1 in America.
1976 - The Mothership, a lander that descends to the stage when the band play "Mothership Connection," appears for the first time during P-Funk's show at the Municipal Auditorium in New Orleans.
1985 - Whitney Houston scores her first #1 on the Hot 100 when "Saving All My Love For You" reaches the top spot. She goes on a remarkable run, with her next six singles all topping the chart.
1993 - Michael Jackson is awarded a patent for the system that allows him to lean in unnatural angles during performances of "Smooth Criminal." To recreate the video on stage, Jackson and his dancers wore special shoes that they could insert into pegs set up on stage for the famous lean.
1998 - Fats Domino is awarded the National Medal of Arts from US President Bill Clinton.
1998 - US Federal courts refuse to issue an injunction against makers of mp3 players, one which the RIAA has been pushing for in light of rampant piracy.
1998 - Singer/songwriter Eros Ramazzotti celebrates his 35th birthday with the global release of his album Eros Live, featuring 15 tracks recorded during his 1997-98 worldwide tour.
1998 - Marilyn Manson begin their Mechanical Animals tour with a show in Kansas City.
1999 - Incubus release their breakthrough album, Make Yourself. The big hit is the third single, "Drive," which takes the long road and peaks at #9 in July 2001.
2000 - The tree from U2's song "One Tree Hill" is taken down. Located in Auckland, New Zealand, the tree had been attacked by activists and had to be removed.
2001 - The science fiction film Donnie Darko, starring Jake Gyllenhaal as a troubled teen who suffers from hallucinations, premieres in US theaters. The movie features Gary Jules' haunting cover of Tears For Fears' 1982 song "Mad World."
2001 - Courtney Love plays her first-ever solo show at the Ventura Theatre in Ventura, California.
2004 - Apple introduces the U2 iPod, the first available in a color other than white (it's black with a red click wheel). It's promoted in a commercial where the band performs their new single, "Vertigo." This is the first time U2 allow their music be used in commercials and the start of a cozy relationship with Apple, which features their music on the iTunes store.
2007 - Acting on the advice of director David Lynch, folk-pop icon and former student of the Maharishi, Donovan, begins drawing up plans for The Invincible Donovan University, a college for studying transcendental meditation.
2010 - Keith Richards releases his autobiography, Life. His drug use is a big topic - here's a quote: "I loved a good high. And if you stay up, you get the songs that everyone else misses because they're asleep."
2018 - 50 Cent uses Groupon to buy 200 tickets to an upcoming Ja Rule concert for $15 each, just so the seats will be empty. The rappers have been feuding since the '90s.
2019 - The beat-up sweater Kurt Cobain wore on Nirvana's MTV Unplugged special sells at auction for $334,000. After Cobain died, Courtney Love gave it to the family's nanny, who sold it to pay for cancer treatments.
