This week in entertainment history — starting off with today, March 2nd.
In 2007, Jimi Hendrix was crowned by Classic Rock Magazine as the “wildest guitar hero” by fans in a survey given out by the magazine. Other top-ranked guitarists include Keith Richards, Stevie Ray Vaughn and Jimmy Page. Christina Aguilera also made headlines on this day in 2003, with her song “Beautiful” as it was ranked 1st on the United Kingdom singles chart for two consecutive weeks.
According to OnThisDay.com, there were also some important film and television events that occurred today, including the premiere of King Kong. The movie premiered at Radio City Music Hall in New York City, all the way back in 1933. Also, the classic musical “The Sound of Music” debuted today in 1965, which ended up winning an Academy Award for Best Picture the following year.
Moving backward to March 1st, Pink Floyd released their famous album “Dark Side of the Moon” in 1973. According to ThisDayInMusic.com, this was their eighth album release with 45 million estimated records sold. On this day in 1967, the Beatles started to record “Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds,” inspired by John Lennon’s young son who made a drawing that he brought home after school one day.
In television and film history, the 36th Grammy Awards were hosted in 1994 where Whitney Houston won for her iconic song “I Will Always Love You.” Two films also debuted today, one being “Ice Age: The Meltdown” in 2006 and “The Batman” with Zoë Kravitz and Robert Pattinson last year.
I didn’t forget about Leap Day! There’s still some interesting stuff that occurred on February 29th, even though this year we don’t even have the date in our calendar. According to OnThisDay.com, the 12th Grammy Awards were held in 1940, where the film “Gone with the Wind” won eight oscar awards. Hattie McDaniel also becomes the first African American woman to win an Oscar for her role in the film. Also on ThisDayInMusic.com, Frank Sinatra released his 14th album, “Come Fly With Me” which won the first Album of the Year at the Grammy’s and was inaugurated into the Grammy Hall of Fame.
On February 28th, Adele topped the charts with her album, 25, in 2016, according to ThisDayInMusic.com. She topped the charts in the U.S. and the U.K. and won Best Album as well as the BRIT award for Best Album. OnThisDay.com reported that the final episode of the show “M*A*S*H*” appeared in 1983 and around 125 million people tuned in to watch.
Finally, Feb. 27th has a lot that occurred throughout the years. On ThisDayInMusic.com, the band U2 was reportedly the highest-paid music group with $109 million dollars in revenue in 2010. In 1999, Britney Spears hit the top spot on the UK charts for “… Baby One More Time” where it stayed for two consecutive weeks. Also on OnThisDay.com, Adam Sandler founded his production company “Happy Madison Productions” in 1996. Finally, a little fun fact that I had no idea about, it is reported by OnThisDay.com that in 2018, Barbara Streisand said that she cloned her pet dog two times. Why twice?
There was a lot that went on this week throughout the years, and who knows what this week in 2023 will be known for?