Today In Music History

Important events in music history for the month of March.

Date	Event
March 1, 1973	Pink Floyd release Dark Side Of The Moon. It enters at #95 on the top 100 US Albums chart, before a run from 1977-1988 where it never leaves the charts.
March 2, 1974	Gladys Knight & The Pips win GRAMMYs for "Neither One of Us" and "Midnight Train To Georgia."
March 2, 1974	Gladys Knight & The Pips win GRAMMYs for "Neither One of Us" and "Midnight Train To Georgia."
March 3, 1931	Cab Calloway records "Minnie The Moocher" for Brunswick Records in New York City. It would become the first jazz recording to sell a million copies.
March 4, 2003	At a show in Jacksonville, Bruce Springsteen plays Hank Ballard's 1960 hit "Let's Go, Let's Go, Let's Go" to honor Ballard, who died two days earlier.
March 5, 1953	As a Morse Code operator in the US Air Force, Johnny Cash intercepts a coded message from Russia that Joseph Stalin had died.
March 6, 1965	The Temptations' "My Girl," co-written by Smokey Robinson, hits #1 in America.
March 7, 1987	The first four Beatles albums are released on compact disc: Please Please Me, With The Beatles, A Hard Day's Night, Beatles For Sale. Marking the first time the band's official UK albums have been available in the US in their original mono mixes.
March 8, 1963	"Please Please Me" by The Beatles lands at #40 on Chicago radio station WLS' weekly Silver Dollar Survey, making it the first time a Beatles song makes a radio-station chart in America.
March 9, 1972	Carole King, James Taylor, Quincy Jones and Barbra Streisand all perform for a fundraiser for presidential hopeful George McGovern.
March 10, 1967	Aretha Franklin releases her first album for Atlantic Records, I Never Loved a Man the Way I Love You, which included "Respect." The Queen of Soul was on her way.
March 11, 1972	Neil Young's album Harvest hits #1 in America, knocking out Don McLean's American Pie, which had been on top for seven weeks.
March 12, 1971	The Allman Brothers Band play the first of two shows recorded for the landmark live album At The Fillmore East.
March 13, 1976	The Four Seasons hit #1 in America with "December, 1963 (Oh, What a Night)," becoming the only act to chart #1 hits before, during and after The Beatles.
March 14, 1964	Billboard magazine reports that The Beatles records make up 60% of all 45 singles sold.
March 15, 1999	Oh what a night: Curtis Mayfield, Del Shannon, Dusty Springfield, Paul McCartney, The Staple Singers, Billy Joel and Bruce Springsteen are inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
March 16, 1968	Otis Redding hits #1, with "(Sittin' On) The Dock Of The Bay." The song becomes the first-ever posthumous #1 hit. Redding died in a plane crash on December 10, 1967.
March 17, 1958	The first "Greatest Hits" compilation is released by Johnny Mathis. And it's a huge hit, and the format catches on quickly. The Mathis album stays in the Billboard 200 album chart for over nine years, a record not broken until Pink Floyd's Dark Side Of The Moon.
March 18, 1911	"Alexander's Ragtime Band" is published by Ted Snyder of New York; it becomes a massive hit.
March 19, 1919	Jazz music plays throughout New Orleans after a serial killer threatens to murder anyone not listening to it.
March 20, 1971	Janis Joplin started a two week run at No.1 on the US singles chart with her version of the Kris Kristofferson and Fred Foster song "Me And Bobby McGee."
March 21, 1952	Cleveland can claim rock history when the Moondog Coronation Ball is held at the Cleveland Arena. Organized by the WJW DJ Alan Freed ("Moondog" on the air), it is considered the first rock concert. It may also be one of the shortest, as it is shut down after one song.
March 22, 1980	Pink Floyd tops the Hot 100 with "Another Brick In The Wall (part II)," which stays on top for four weeks. It's a rare hit single for the band, whose only other Top 40 appearance is "Money," which hit #13 in 1973.
March 23, 2002	"Man of Constant Sorrow," takes bluegrass to #1 in America from the soundtrack of O Brother Where Art Thou?
March 24, 1945	Billboard publishes its first albums chart, with just 10 positions. The first #1 is Nat King Cole's A Collection Of Favorites. The chart is published irregularly until 1956, when it becomes a weekly feature.
March 25, 1955	The film Blackboard Jungle is released and "Rock Around The Clock," is featured in the film. A few months later, the song becomes the first ever #1 rock song.
March 26, 1985	Radio stations in South Africa banned all of Stevie Wonder's records after he dedicated the Oscar he had won the night before at The Academy Awards to Nelson Mandela.
March 27, 1973	Liza Minnelli wins the Oscar for Best Actress for her role in Cabaret, beating out Diana Ross, who starred in Lady Sings The Blues.
March 28, 1981	Blondie's "Rapture" hits #1 on the Hot 100, becoming the first chart-topper with a rap.
March 29, 1986	The Beatles' records are officially licensed for sale in the Soviet Union.
March 30, 1967	The Beatles shoot the cover of their Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band album at Chelsea Manor Studios in London.
March 31, 1969	Led Zeppelin's first album is released in the UK. The self-titled LP contains many hard rock classics, including "Dazed And Confused," "Good Times, Bad Times" and "Communication Breakdown."