Tuesday, August 31, 1999

Q Magazine – The 100 Greatest Stars of the 20th Century

image from angelfire.com

Toward the close of the 20th century, British music magazine Q asked its readers to vote on the greatest stars of the 20th century. Here were the results:

  1. John Lennon
  2. Paul McCartney
  3. Kurt Cobain
  4. Bob Dylan
  5. Elvis Presley
  6. David Bowie
  7. Madonna
  8. Noel Gallagher
  9. Liam Gallagher
  10. Michael Stipe

  11. Keith Richards
  12. Bob Marley
  13. Freddie Mercury
  14. Frank Sinatra
  15. Jimi Hendrix
  16. Thom Yorke
  17. Aretha Franklin
  18. Bono
  19. James Brown
  20. Brian Wilson

  21. Robert Johnson
  22. Mick Jagger
  23. Iggy Pop
  24. Joe Strummer
  25. Marvin Gaye
  26. Ringo Starr
  27. Little Richard
  28. Chuck D
  29. Joni Mitchell
  30. George Michael

  31. Richard Ashcroft
  32. Richey Edwards
  33. Kate Bush
  34. Patti Smith
  35. Bruce Springsteen
  36. George Harrison
  37. Stevie Wonder
  38. Jarvis Cocker
  39. Marc Bolan
  40. Dr. Dre

  41. Morrissey
  42. Cerys Matthews
  43. Nick Drake
  44. Charlie Parker
  45. Neil Young
  46. Debbie Harry
  47. Pete Townshend
  48. John “Johnny Rotten” Lydon
  49. Ray Davies
  50. Captain Beefheart

  51. Paul Weller
  52. Miles Davis
  53. Ian Curtis
  54. Brian Eno
  55. Rod Stewart
  56. Nicky Wire
  57. Hank Williams
  58. Jimmy Page
  59. Lou Reed
  60. Duke Ellington

  61. Phil Spector
  62. Paul Simon
  63. Woody Guthrie
  64. Ralf Hutter
  65. Sam Cooke
  66. Jim Morrison
  67. Prince
  68. Shaun Ryder
  69. Lee “Scratch” Perry
  70. Syd Barrett

  71. Brian Jones
  72. Keith Moon
  73. Youssou N’Dour
  74. Roger Waters
  75. Buddy Holly
  76. Billie Holiday
  77. Robert Plant
  78. Bez
  79. Diana Ross
  80. Sting

  81. Louis Armstrong
  82. Igory Stravinksy
  83. Eric Clapton
  84. John Squire
  85. Liam Howlett
  86. Lauryn Hill
  87. Fela Kuti
  88. Serge Gainsbourg
  89. Damon Albarn
  90. Sylvester “Sly Stone” Stewart

  91. Muddy Waters
  92. Claudy Debussy
  93. Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan
  94. Elvis Costello
  95. Johnny Marr
  96. Ozzy Osbourne
  97. Frank Zappa
  98. Ian Brown
  99. Bryan Ferry
  100. Ravi Shankar

Resources:

Saturday, August 28, 1999

In Concert: Roger Waters

image from watersish.com

Venue: Kemper Arena; Kansas City, MO
Tour: In the Flesh Tour
The Players: Roger Waters (vocals, guitar, bass), Andy Fairweather-Low (guitar), Doyle Bramhall II (guitar, vocals), Jon Carin (keyboards), Graham Broad (drums), Katie Kissoon (backing vocals)


The Set List:

1. In the Flesh
2. The Thin Ice
3. Another Brick in the Wall Part 1
4. The Happiest Days of Our Lives
5. Another Brick in the Wall Part 2
6. Mother
7. Get Your Filthy Hands Off My Desert
8. Southampton Dock
9. Pigs on the Wing Part 1
10. Dogs
11. Welcome to the Machine
12. Wish You Were Here
13. Shine on You Crazy Diamond Part 1-4
14. Shine on You Crazy Diamond Part 5-8
15. Speak to Me
16. Breathe
17. Time
18. Breathe Reprise
19. The Great Gig in the Sky
20. Money
21. Every Stranger’s Eyes
22. The Powers That Be
23. What God Wants Part 1
24. Perfect Sense Part 1 and 2
25. It’s a Miracle
26. Amused to Death
27. Brain Damage
28. Eclipse
29. Comfortably Numb
30. Each Small Candle

Fairweather-Low has played and/or recorded with Eric Clapton, George Harrison, Stevie Nicks, and Kate Bush, among others; has worked with Waters since the 1984 Pros and Cons of Hitchhiking tour. Bramhall has played professionally since he was 15. He was one of the few musicians the late Stevie Ray Vaughan would invite to sit in with him and, at 19, was invited to join Jimmie Vaughan's Fabulous Thunderbirds. Broad has worked with Procol Harum, Bill Wyman & the Rhythm Kings, and on Waters’ Amused to Death. Jon Carin has played with The Who, Pete Townshend, Bryan Ferry and others. Kissoon has worked with Eric Clapton, Van Morrison, George Harrison, and the Pet Shop Boys among others.


Tuesday, August 24, 1999

Christina Aguilera’s debut album released

First posted 3/27/2008; updated 11/24/2020.

Christina Aguilera

Christina Aguilera


Released: August 24, 1999


Peak: 11 US, 14 UK, 11 CN, 21 AU


Sales (in millions): 8.3 US, -- UK, 16.0 world (includes US and UK)


Genre: pop


Tracks: (Click for codes to singles charts.)

  1. Genie in a Bottle (7/3/99, 1 US, 1 UK, 1 CN, 2 AU, platinum single)
  2. What a Girl Wants (11/27/99, 1 US, 3 UK, 5 CN, 5 AU, gold single)
  3. I Turn to You (4/15/00, 3 US, 5 AC, 19 UK, 10 CN, 40 AU)
  4. So Emotional
  5. Come on Over Baby (All I Want Is You) (8/5/00, 1 US, 8 UK, 14 CN, 9 AU, gold single)
  6. Reflection (7/25/98, 19 AC)
  7. Love for All Seasons
  8. Somebody’s Somebody
  9. When You Put Your Hands on Me
  10. Blessed
  11. Love Will Find a Way
  12. Obvious

Rating:

3.713 out of 5.00 (average of 16 ratings)


Quotable: “Out of the deluge of teen-pop albums in 1999, this feels like the best of the lot.” – Stephen Thomas Erlewine, All Music Guide


Awards:

About the Album:

Christina Aguilera wasn’t even 18 years old when she made her chart debut with Reflection, a track from the soundtrack to Disney’s animated movie Mulan. While it was her first charting song, it wasn’t her first brush with celebrity. She’d appeared in The New Mickey Mouse Club in the early ‘90s, along with future stars Ryan Gosling, Kerri Russell, Britney Spears, and Justin Timberlake. Much was made of her being part of that group after Spears and Timberlake both became hugely successful in the music world.

Because she was the last of the “alumni to hit the charts…it’s easy for cynical observers to assume that she was the lesser of the…talents…That's not the case at all. If anything, Aguilera is the best…, blessed with a rich voice that’s given the material it deserves.” AMG RCA executive Ron Fair said, “She was put on this earth to sing.” WK

The Grammy world agreed, giving her the Best New Artist award over Spears. Aguilera also bested Spears when it came to the chart success of the singles from her debut album. While Spears hit #1 with “Baby One More Time,” Aguilera ascended to the top of the Billboard pop charts three times. The first single, Genie in a Bottle, topped the charts in 21 countries. WK Aguilera almost didn’t record it because a lot of other artists were after the song. WK It has been called her signature track. WK

What a Girl Wants was the album’s second #1 single in the U.S. and also topped the charts in Spain and New Zealand. Aguilera insisted on a more upbeat, R&B-edged mix for the single. WK Critics compared her vocals to Mariah Carey and Whitney Houston.

I Turn to You, was released as the third single and hit #3 in the U.S. The song was a remake of All-4-One’s contribution to the 1996 Space Jam soundtrack. While critics acknowledged how “the track allowed Aguilera’s vocals to soar and shine,” WK they also called it “a cliché ballad.” WK

The fourth single, Come on Over Baby, was considered the most sexual song on the album and featured a rap version written by Aguilera. WK It was Aguilera’s third #1 song in the U.S. The song was reworked for the single to give it more hip-hop and dance elements. WK

Aguilera’s “eponymous debut remains firmly within the teen-oriented dance-pop genre” AMG although Aguilera wanted a more R&B-oriented album. WK “Unlike Spears’ album, this is done right. The songwriting is strong – the ballads are engaging, the dance numbers are catchy – the production is clean and uncluttered, letting Aguilera’s voice take the foreground. Most impressively, she not only has charisma, she can actually sing, bringing conviction to these love and heartbreak songs.” AMG

“So, Christina Aguilera may be lightweight, but it’s lightweight in the best possible sense – breezy, fun, engaging, and enjoyable on each repeated listen.” AMG Sputnikmusic editor Amanda Murray said it was “an album that is highly representative of the better aspects of the teen pop movement of the late 90s.” WK All Music Guide’s Stephen Thomas Erlewine made a similar proclamation, saying that “Out of the deluge of teen-pop albums in 1999, this feels like the best of the lot.” AMG

Resources and Related Links:

Tuesday, August 10, 1999

On This Day (1899): “Maple Leaf Rag” published

Maple Leaf Rag

Scott Joplin

Writer(s): Scott Joplin (music), Sydney Brown (words) (see lyrics here)


Published: August 10, 1899


First Charted: --


Peak: -- (Click for codes to charts.)


Sales (in millions): 1.0 (sheet music)


Airplay/Streaming (in millions): -- radio, 17.6 video, 5.68 streaming

Awards (Scott Joplin):

Click on award for more details.


Awards (U.S. Marine Band):


Awards (Vess Ossman):

About the Song:

Scott Joplin was a black pianist from Texas. His mother worked as a servant in a white household where he had access to a piano. He later received classical training. He left home as a teen to hit the road as a musician. He popularized a playing style known as ragtime in which he played a beat with the left hand and melody with the right hand. In their book They All Played Ragtime, Rudi Blesh and Harriet Janis called it the “most exciting, most infectiously lilting music ever heard.” SS

With its “fabulously infectious melody,” SS Scott Joplin’s “Maple Leaf Rag” “is the essence of ragtime,” SS becoming “the model for ragtime compositions by subsequent composers.” WK Ragtime was a “musical innovation [that] was key to the development of jazz” LW and “an important influence in the development of popular music in the first two or three decades of the century.” LW The musical form got its start with banjo playing, but was then adapted to piano and became widely popular as the instrumental gained widespread popularity as a staple in American homes in the late 19th century.

It was the first rag to sell more than a million copies of sheet music and “spawned a host of songs with the word ‘rag’ in the title.” LW The title came from the Maple Leaf club in Sedalia, Missouri – “the world capital of ragtime.” SS Joplin first visited the city as a touring musician in 1894 and took up permanent residence there a decade later. WK

In 1903, the song was published again with lyrics by Sydney Brown. WK Wilbur Sweatman, a black clarinetist, appears to be the first to record the song either that year or the next. SS He recorded it with a six-piece band for the Metropolitan Music Store in Minneapolis. SS The first widely available commercial recording was made in October 1906 by the U.S. Marine Band. SS Their version charted in March 1907, reaching #2. Four months later, banjo player Vess Ossman hit the charts with his version, coming in one rung lower but becoming the more celebrated version. Before his death in 1917, Joplin made some piano rolls but otherwise he never made any commercial recordings.


Resources:


First posted 9/5/2023.