It’s August 23rd and these are some of the things that happened on this day in pop music history:
- In 2008, Madonna kicked off her Sticky & Sweet Tour in Cardiff, Wales. The 85-date trek in support of her album Hard Candy, included stops in Montreal, Toronto and Vancouver. It went on to become the highest-grossing tour by a female artist.
- In 1949, Richard Lewis Springthorpe was born in Australia. As Rick Springfield he went on to record 21 albums – but is best known for the 1981 song “Jessie’s Girl.”
- In 1980, Heatwave, described as a “New Wave Woodstock,” was held in Bowmanville, Ont. with performers like Talking Heads, Elvis Costello, The Pretenders and The B-52s. The crowd was estimated at between 85,000 and 100,000 people but the festival reportedly lost more than $1 million and was never staged again.
- In 1994, Jeff Buckley released his album Grace, which featured a cover of Canadian songwriter Leonard Cohen's “Hallelujah.” It had a resurgence three years later after Buckley drowned in the Mississippi River.
- In 1989, Ric Ocasek of The Cars married model Paulina Porizkova, whom he met while shooting the video for “Drive.” They had two sons together but separated in 2017.
- In 1969, “Honky Tonk Women” by the Rolling Stones started a four-week run at No.1 on the Billboard Hot 100. The band’s fifth song to top the chart, it peaked at No. 2 in Canada.
- In 1993, Duran Duran unveiled their star on the Hollywood Walk Of Fame. “Our songs exist only in the heads of those who listen, and then only briefly,” said frontman Simon Le Bon. “Here is something of stone and metal which will last us through day and night.”
And that’s what popped on this day.