Chapter 01 — Today in music
On a day like today August 17
1958
Belinda Carlisle is born, from garage punk to the top of pop
On August 17, 1958, Belinda Carlisle was born in Hollywood — voice of The Go-Go's, the first all-female band writing their own songs and playing their own instruments to top the US album chart. Emerging from the L.A. punk scene, she later shone solo with 'Heaven Is a Place on Earth'. A career connecting the garage and the pop Olympus.
Belinda Carlisle
The Go-Go's
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1982
The day music went digital: the first CD is pressed
On August 17, 1982, at the Polygram plant in Langenhagen, Germany, the first commercial compact disc in history was manufactured: ABBA's "The Visitors". The format, jointly developed by Philips and Sony, promised sound without surface noise and a durability vinyl could not offer. By the commercial launch in November some 150 titles were ready, and within a decade the CD dethroned vinyl and cassette. That German pressing run opened the digital era that would later define — and shake — the entire music industry.
ABBA
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1991
'Power of Love' tops the chart and Luther Vandross collects what he was owed
On August 17, 1991, Luther Vandross's 'Power of Love' topped the R&B albums chart. Before stardom he had spent years singing backing vocals for other people — he's on David Bowie's 'Young Americans' and on television jingles — because labels didn't know what to do with a singer who fit no mould. When they finally put him out front, he turned out to have the most elegant male voice of his generation.
Luther Vandross
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1939
Luther Allison is born: the bluesman who had to leave for Europe to exist
On August 17, 1939, Luther Allison was born in Arkansas. He came up in the clubs of Chicago's West Side, playing alongside the sons of Muddy Waters and Howlin' Wolf, and was one of the few bluesmen ever signed to Motown. When America lost interest in the blues, he moved to France and spent twenty years filling European halls. He came home in the nineties to win every award going, and died the following year.
Luther Allison
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1955
Colin Moulding, XTC's quiet melodist, is born
On August 17, 1955, Colin Moulding was born in Swindon, England — bassist and second pen of XTC. In the shadow of the prolific Andy Partridge, he signed several of the band's best-loved singles, such as "Making Plans for Nigel" and "Generals and Majors", where British craftsman pop crossed with post-punk invention. His melodic bass style and his eye for English suburban life made him a quiet hero for musicians and devotees of songwriter's pop.
Colin Moulding
XTC
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1959
"Kind of Blue": the jazz record that schooled rock
On August 17, 1959, Columbia released Miles Davis's "Kind of Blue", recorded in two sessions with an unrepeatable sextet that included John Coltrane, Cannonball Adderley and Bill Evans. Its bet on modal improvisation — scales instead of chords — opened a space of freedom that spilled beyond jazz: the Allman Brothers, the Doors' Ray Manzarek and half of psychedelia cited it as sacred text. It remains the best-selling jazz album in history and a permanent lesson that fewer notes can say more.
Miles Davis
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