Friday 2pm: Spot Light Artist – Kool and The Gang

Kool & the Gang are an American musical group formed in Jersey City, New Jersey in 1964 by brothers Robert “Kool” Bell and Ronald Bell, with Dennis “D.T.” Thomas, Robert “Spike” Mickens, Charles Smith, George Brown, and Ricky West. They have undergone numerous changes in personnel and have explored many musical styles throughout their history, including jazz, soul, funk, rock, and pop music. After settling on their name following several changes, the group signed to De-Lite Records and released their debut album, Kool and the Gang (1970).

The band’s first taste of success came with their fourth album Wild and Peaceful (1973), which contained the US top ten singles “Jungle Boogie”and “Hollywood Swinging”. Kool & the Gang subsequently entered a period of decline before they reached a second commercial peak between 1979 and 1986 following their partnership with Brazilian musician/producer Eumir Deodato and the addition of singer James “J.T.” Taylor to the line-up. Their most successful albums of this period include Ladies’ Night (1979), Celebrate! (1980), and Emergency (1984), their highest selling album with two million copies sold in the US, and the hit singles “Ladies’ Night”, the US number one “Celebration”, “Get Down on It”, “Joanna”, and “Cherish”. The band continue to perform worldwide, including as support for Van Halen in 2012 and their fiftieth anniversary tour in 2014.

Kool & the Gang have won numerous awards, including two Grammy Awards, seven American Music Awards, and, in 2006, a Music Business Association Chairman’s Award for artistic achievement. In 2018, the Bells, Brown, and Taylor were inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame. Their discography includes 23 studio albums and almost 70 singles. They have sold 7.5 million and 4.5 million RIAA-certified albums and singles, respectively, in the US.

Thursday 10pm: MaxMusic 20th Century – 1957 (Part 2)

January 5 – Renato Carosone and his band start their American tour in Cuba.
January 6 – Elvis Presley makes his final appearance on The Ed Sullivan Show.
January 16 – The Cavern Club opens in Liverpool, England, as a jazz club.
February 8 – Bo Diddley records his songs “Hey Bo Diddley” and “Mona” (aka “I Need You Baby”).
March – Chicago’s Cardinal Stritch bans all rock and roll and rhythm and blues music from Catholic-run schools, saying that “its rhythms encourage young people to behave in a hedonistic manner.”
March 1 – The Everly Brothers record in Nashville their first single “Bye Bye Love” for Cadence Records.
March 3 – The second annual Eurovision Song Contest is staged in Frankfurt am Main, West Germany. The contest is won by Dutch singer Corry Brokken with the song Net als toen.
March 19 – Elvis Presley purchases a mansion in Memphis, Tennessee, and calls it Graceland.
March 26 – Ricky Nelson records his first three songs.
March 27 – “Que Sera, Sera (Whatever Will Be, Will Be)” from 1956’s Alfred Hitchcock suspense film The Man Who Knew Too Much wins the Academy Award for Best Song. Sung by Doris Day in the film, it proves to be one of her biggest hit records as well.
May 14 – In Paris, Heitor Villa-Lobos records his Bachiana Brasileira No. 4, with the Orchestre Nationale de la Radiodiffusion Française, for EMI. Through May 21 the recording sessions continue with Bachiana Brasileira No. 7 and Bachiana Brasileira No. 3 with Manoel Braune, piano.
May 26 – Paul Robeson, blacklisted at this time from travelling outside the United States, performs a concert from New York City via the new transatlantic telephone line to an audience in St Pancras Town Hall in London; on October 5 he uses the same means to address the Miners’ Eisteddfod at the Grand Pavilion, Porthcawl in Wales.
June 20 – Toru Takemitsu’s Requiem for Strings is first performed, by the Tokyo Symphony Orchestra.
July 6 – John Lennon and Paul McCartney of The Beatles first meet at a garden fete at St. Peter’s Church, Woolton, Liverpool, England, at which Lennon’s skiffle group, The Quarrymen, is playing (and in the graveyard of which an Eleanor Rigby is buried).
August 5 – American Bandstand begins its 30-year syndicated run on US network television.
September 19 – Dalida is the first artist to be awarded a gold record in France for 300,000 sales of “Bambino”. This year, she is also the first female recording artist to have her own fan club.
September 20 – Jean Sibelius dies aged 91 at Ainola, his home in Finland, having completed no significant compositions for thirty years; at the time of his death, a performance of his Symphony No. 5 is being given in Helsinki under the baton of Sir Malcolm Sargent.
September 26 – Broadway première of the musical West Side Story at the Winter Garden Theatre (following tryouts in Washington, D.C. and Philadelphia beginning in August) with music by Leonard Bernstein (who a week later is appointed music director of the New York Philharmonic orchestra) and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim, his Broadway debut. This year also Bernstein conducts the inaugural concert of the Mann Auditorium in Tel Aviv.
November 25–27 – The first two Hollywood motion pictures starring Pat Boone, Bernadine and April Love, are released.

Paul Simon and Art Garfunkel name themselves Tom and Jerry and begin their recording career, signing with Sid Prosen of Big Records. Their first single, “Hey, Schoolgirl”, backed with “Dancin’ Wild”, hits #49 on the Billboard pop charts. Garfunkel is Tom Graph (so called because he like to write the pop charts out on graph paper) and Simon is Jerry Landis, a pseudonym he used during his early 1960s solo recordings. They tour for eighteen months before retiring to become college students and then reforming in 1963 as Simon & Garfunkel.

The Casals Festival is founded in Puerto Rico.

When Nat King Cole’s television show is unable to get a sponsor, Frankie Laine becomes the first artist to cross TV’s color line, becoming the first white artist to appear as a guest, foregoing his usual salary of $10,000. Other top performers follow suit, including Mel Tormé and Tony Bennett, but, despite an increase in ratings, the show still fails to pick up a national sponsor.

Gorni Kramer makes his first appearance on Italian television, in Il Musichiere.

Maria Callas is introduced to Greek shipping magnate Aristotle Onassis.

“Suíte do Pescador” is composed by Dorival Caymmi.

Actress Debbie Reynolds earns a gold record for her song Tammy, which is the best-selling single by a female vocalist in 1957 in the United States. This song from the motion picture Tammy and the Bachelor is also nominated for an Academy Award.

Wednesday 6pm: MaxMusic 21st Century – 2001 (Part 1)

January 9 – Apple Inc. introduces the iTunes media player.
January 12–21 – Rock in Rio 3 is held in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Headlining acts consist of Sting, R.E.M., ‘N Sync, Iron Maiden, Neil Young, Red Hot Chili Peppers and a new line-up of Guns N’ Roses.
January 17 – Bass player Jason Newsted leaves Metallica after 14 years with the band.
January 26 – A crowd crush occurs during a set by Limp Bizkit at the Sydney Big Day Out music festival. Jessica Michalik is killed and the band subsequently leaves the country after threats to their safety.
February 1
CFXJ (Flow 93.5), Canada’s first urban music station, goes to air for the first time as a testing signal (its official debut is on March 1.) This is considered a breakthrough for Canadian hip hop and R&B musicians.
Jennifer Lopez becomes first female artist to have both a number one album (J.Lo) and a number one movie (The Wedding Planner) in the same week.
February 6 – Don Felder is fired from the Eagles. Felder sues the band for wrongful termination, and is countersued by Don Henley and Glenn Frey for breach of contract. The suits are settled out of court.
February 13 – Peter Frampton receives the Orville H. Gibson Lifetime Achievement Award.
February 17 – Manic Street Preachers become the first western rock band to play in Cuba. (Fidel Castro is in attendance.) They did not tour however, meaning that the unsigned British rock band Sandstone Veterans are the only band from the western world to tour Cuba.
February 18 – James Taylor weds for the third time, marrying Caroline “Kim” Smedvig, director of public relations and marketing for the Boston Symphony Orchestra.
February 28 – Courtney Love sues to get out of her contract with Vivendi Universal, on the grounds that music industry contracts are unfairly long compared to those in other industries.
March 1 – Collin Raye is awarded the Artist Humanitarian Award from Country Radio Broadcasters. The award was given in recognition of Raye’s work on behalf of a number of different charitable organizations including Childhelp USA, USA Weekend’s Make A Difference Day and the Native American organization Hecel Oyakapi.
March 8 – Melanie Chisholm announces she does not intend to do any more work with the Spice Girls. Although the group denies it is splitting, it would not be active again until 2007.
March 9
Janet Jackson’s single “All for You” breaks several airplay records, becoming the first song to be added to every station in three mainstream radio formats within its first week of release. It was also the highest debut for a single not commercially available in both the United States and France, and the highest debut and largest opening airplay figure on the Radio Songs chart.
Eric Singer replaces Peter Criss as the drummer for Kiss as the band continues its farewell tour in Yokohama, Japan. Singer dons the “Catman” make-up, ending the band’s tradition of creating new make-up and personas for replacement members.
March 14 – The Court of Appeals in Rome finds Michael Jackson “not guilty” of plagiarism, reversing a decision made in 1999 by a lower court. Italian songwriter Albano Carrisi had claimed that Jackson’s “Will You Be There” was a copy of his song “I Cigni Di Balaka.”
March 16 – Sean “Puffy” Combs is acquitted on all charges stemming from a December 1999 nightclub shooting in Manhattan. However, an artist on his Bad Boy Records label, Shyne, is convicted of two counts of assault as well as reckless endangerment and gun possession.
March 24 – John Connolly of Sevendust marries Lori Kirkley.
March 26 – Gorillaz release their first studio album Gorillaz. The album reached number three in the UK, and was an unexpected hit in the US, hitting number 14 and selling over seven million copies worldwide by 2007. It earned the group an entry in the Guinness Book of World Records as the Most Successful Virtual Band.
March 28
Sergei Rachmaninoff’s Piano Concerto No. 2 replaces Max Bruch’s violin concerto at #1 in the Classic FM Hall of Fame.
Two big selling albums : Hikaru Utada’s Distance and Ayumi Hamasaki’s A Best are released on exactly the same date. Their debut week sales are 3,002,720 and 2,874,870, respectively, setting the world’s #1 and #2 one-week album sales records.[6]
March 31 – Couple Whitney Houston and Bobby Brown were thrown out and banned for life from Hollywood’s Bel Air Hotel and arrested and jailed after destroying their room. Property that was allegedly damaged included a TV and two doors. According to hotel workers, the walls and carpets were also stained by alcohol. The hotel closed down the room for five days for repairs.
April–May
April 3 – Mariah Carey signs a blockbuster contract with Virgin Records, worth $80 million for four albums.
April 4 – Original Zombies lead singer Colin Blunstone and keyboardist Rod Argent reunite for a two-part performance at London’s Jazz Cafe, the first time the two had performed together in over 30 years.
April 14 – Janet Jackson’s “All for You” reaches number one on the Billboard Hot 100 and remains atop the chart for seven non-consecutive weeks. It becomes the longest reigning hit of the year.
April 15 – The Dutch DJ Tiësto releases his first solo album, In My Memory, on Black Hole Recordings.
April 21 – The first Top Chinese Music Awards ceremony is held.
April 24 – Janet Jackson releases her seventh studio album, All for You. It becomes her fifth consecutive album to open at number one, with sales exceeding 600,000 copies. It receives three Grammy Award nominations, winning for Best Dance Recording.
May 1
Huey Lewis and the News makes a comeback with their album Plan B, their first album of new material in a decade.
The 4th EJCF is held in Basel. The next time was in 2004.
May 12 – Joey Fatone of ‘N Sync injures his leg in a trap door during rehearsals for the new tour.
May 15 – Charley Pride’s A Tribute to Jim Reeves is the first compact disc to have copy protection, ’80s band The Go Go’s release their first album in 17 years: God Bless The Go Go’s
May 22 – Mötley Crüe publishes their collective autobiography The Dirt.

Thursday 10pm: MaxMusic 20th Century – 1957 (Part 1)

January 5 – Renato Carosone and his band start their American tour in Cuba.
January 6 – Elvis Presley makes his final appearance on The Ed Sullivan Show.
January 16 – The Cavern Club opens in Liverpool, England, as a jazz club.
February 8 – Bo Diddley records his songs “Hey Bo Diddley” and “Mona” (aka “I Need You Baby”).
March – Chicago’s Cardinal Stritch bans all rock and roll and rhythm and blues music from Catholic-run schools, saying that “its rhythms encourage young people to behave in a hedonistic manner.”
March 1 – The Everly Brothers record in Nashville their first single “Bye Bye Love” for Cadence Records.
March 3 – The second annual Eurovision Song Contest is staged in Frankfurt am Main, West Germany. The contest is won by Dutch singer Corry Brokken with the song Net als toen.
March 19 – Elvis Presley purchases a mansion in Memphis, Tennessee, and calls it Graceland.
March 26 – Ricky Nelson records his first three songs.
March 27 – “Que Sera, Sera (Whatever Will Be, Will Be)” from 1956’s Alfred Hitchcock suspense film The Man Who Knew Too Much wins the Academy Award for Best Song. Sung by Doris Day in the film, it proves to be one of her biggest hit records as well.
May 14 – In Paris, Heitor Villa-Lobos records his Bachiana Brasileira No. 4, with the Orchestre Nationale de la Radiodiffusion Française, for EMI. Through May 21 the recording sessions continue with Bachiana Brasileira No. 7 and Bachiana Brasileira No. 3 with Manoel Braune, piano.
May 26 – Paul Robeson, blacklisted at this time from travelling outside the United States, performs a concert from New York City via the new transatlantic telephone line to an audience in St Pancras Town Hall in London; on October 5 he uses the same means to address the Miners’ Eisteddfod at the Grand Pavilion, Porthcawl in Wales.
June 20 – Toru Takemitsu’s Requiem for Strings is first performed, by the Tokyo Symphony Orchestra.
July 6 – John Lennon and Paul McCartney of The Beatles first meet at a garden fete at St. Peter’s Church, Woolton, Liverpool, England, at which Lennon’s skiffle group, The Quarrymen, is playing (and in the graveyard of which an Eleanor Rigby is buried).
August 5 – American Bandstand begins its 30-year syndicated run on US network television.
September 19 – Dalida is the first artist to be awarded a gold record in France for 300,000 sales of “Bambino”. This year, she is also the first female recording artist to have her own fan club.
September 20 – Jean Sibelius dies aged 91 at Ainola, his home in Finland, having completed no significant compositions for thirty years; at the time of his death, a performance of his Symphony No. 5 is being given in Helsinki under the baton of Sir Malcolm Sargent.
September 26 – Broadway première of the musical West Side Story at the Winter Garden Theatre (following tryouts in Washington, D.C. and Philadelphia beginning in August) with music by Leonard Bernstein (who a week later is appointed music director of the New York Philharmonic orchestra) and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim, his Broadway debut. This year also Bernstein conducts the inaugural concert of the Mann Auditorium in Tel Aviv.
November 25–27 – The first two Hollywood motion pictures starring Pat Boone, Bernadine and April Love, are released.

Paul Simon and Art Garfunkel name themselves Tom and Jerry and begin their recording career, signing with Sid Prosen of Big Records. Their first single, “Hey, Schoolgirl”, backed with “Dancin’ Wild”, hits #49 on the Billboard pop charts. Garfunkel is Tom Graph (so called because he like to write the pop charts out on graph paper) and Simon is Jerry Landis, a pseudonym he used during his early 1960s solo recordings. They tour for eighteen months before retiring to become college students and then reforming in 1963 as Simon & Garfunkel.

The Casals Festival is founded in Puerto Rico.

When Nat King Cole’s television show is unable to get a sponsor, Frankie Laine becomes the first artist to cross TV’s color line, becoming the first white artist to appear as a guest, foregoing his usual salary of $10,000. Other top performers follow suit, including Mel Tormé and Tony Bennett, but, despite an increase in ratings, the show still fails to pick up a national sponsor.

Gorni Kramer makes his first appearance on Italian television, in Il Musichiere.

Maria Callas is introduced to Greek shipping magnate Aristotle Onassis.

“Suíte do Pescador” is composed by Dorival Caymmi.

Actress Debbie Reynolds earns a gold record for her song Tammy, which is the best-selling single by a female vocalist in 1957 in the United States. This song from the motion picture Tammy and the Bachelor is also nominated for an Academy Award.

Tuesday 10pm: MaxMusic 20th Century – 1956 (Part 3)

January 3 – Bach: The Goldberg Variations, Glenn Gould’s debut solo piano recording, is released by Columbia Records in the United States; it sells 40,000 copies by 1960.
January 26
The North American premiere of Carlos Chávez’s Third Symphony is given by the New York Philharmonic conducted by the composer.
Buddy Holly’s first recording sessions for Decca Records take place in Nashville, Tennessee.
Roy Orbison signs with Sun Records.
January 27 – Elvis Presley’s single “Heartbreak Hotel” / “I Was the One” is released. It goes on to be Elvis’s first #1 hit.
January 28 – Elvis Presley makes his national television debut on The Dorsey Brothers Stage Show.
February 3 – The Symphony of the Air, conducted by Leonard Bernstein, gives the world première of Robert Moevs’s Fourteen Variations for Orchestra (composed in 1952) in New York.
February 11 – Henry Barraud’s Concertino for Piano and Winds receives its world-première performance by Eugene List and members of the New York Chamber Ensemble in New York City.
March – The Coasters’ recording career begins, with “Turtle Dovin'”.
March 10 – Carl Perkins’ single “Blue Suede Shoes” enters the R&B charts, the first time a country music artist has made it on the R&B charts.
March 21 – World première of Heitor Villa-Lobos’s Eleventh Symphony, by the Boston Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Charles Münch, at Carnegie Hall in New York City.
March 22 – Carl Perkins is injured in a car accident near Wilmington, Delaware, on his way to New York City to make an appearance on The Ed Sullivan Show. He spends several months in hospital.
March 24 – The first regularly scheduled nationally broadcast rock & roll show, Rock ‘n Roll Dance Party, with Alan Freed as host, premières on the CBS Radio Network.
March 26 – Colonel Tom Parker formally becomes Elvis Presley’s manager.
March 31 – Elvis Presley films a screen test for Paramount Pictures.
April 3 – Elvis Presley makes his first appearance on The Milton Berle Show.
April 6 – Paramount Pictures signs Elvis Presley to a three-picture deal.
April 10 – A group of racial segregationists (followers of Asa Earl Carter) rush the stage at a Nat King Cole concert in Birmingham, Alabama, but are quickly captured.
April 22 – The 2i’s Coffee Bar opens in Old Compton Street, Soho, London; its basement rapidly becomes a pioneering venue for rock & roll music in Britain, Tommy Steele being resident from July.
May – Gene Autry’s Melody Ranch, a CBS Radio Sunday evening program on the air since 1940 (except for a hiatus from 1942–45), ends its run.
May 2 – For the first time in Billboard magazine history, five singles appear in both the pop and R&B Top Ten charts. They are Elvis Presley’s “Heartbreak Hotel” (#1 pop, #6 R&B), Carl Perkins’ “Blue Suede Shoes” (#4 pop, #3 R&B), Little Richard’s “Long Tall Sally” (#9 pop, #1 R&B), the Platters’ “(You’ve Got) The Magic Touch” (#10 pop, #7 R&B) and Frankie Lymon and the Teenagers’ “Why Do Fools Fall in Love” (#7 pop, #4 R&B). Presley’s and Perkins’ singles also appeared on the country and western Top Ten chart at #1 and #2 respectively.
May 6
Elvis Presley appears on the Milton Berle show.
In Paris, Heitor Villa-Lobos records his Bachiana Brasileira No. 9 with the strings of the Orchestre National de la Radiodiffusion Française, for EMI.
May 6–28 – In Paris, Heitor Villa-Lobos supervises the recording of his Bachianas Brasileiras No. 6 by Fernand Dufrene (flute) and René Plessier (bassoon) and his Bachianas Brasileiras No. 2 with the Orchestre National de la Radiodiffusion Française, the four suites of his Descobrimento do Brasil, his Chôros No. 10 and his Invocação em defesa da patria, with Maria Kareska (soprano), the Chorale des Jeunesses musicales de France, and the Orchestre National de la Radiodiffusion Française for EMI.
May 8
Ernst Toch’s Third Symphony is awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Music.
Benjamin Britten’s opera Gloriana is given its US premiere in Cincinnati, in concert form conducted by Josef Krips.
May 24 – First-ever Eurovision Song Contest from the Kursaal Theatre, Lugano, Switzerland. Seven countries participate, each with two songs. Switzerland is declared the winner, with Lys Assia singing “Refrain”.
June – The winners of the Queen Elisabeth International Music Competition, held in Brussels and devoted this year to the piano, are:
First Prize: Vladimir Ashkenazy

Thursday 10pm: MaxMusic 20th Century – 1956 (Part 2)

January 3 – Bach: The Goldberg Variations, Glenn Gould’s debut solo piano recording, is released by Columbia Records in the United States; it sells 40,000 copies by 1960.
January 26
The North American premiere of Carlos Chávez’s Third Symphony is given by the New York Philharmonic conducted by the composer.
Buddy Holly’s first recording sessions for Decca Records take place in Nashville, Tennessee.
Roy Orbison signs with Sun Records.
January 27 – Elvis Presley’s single “Heartbreak Hotel” / “I Was the One” is released. It goes on to be Elvis’s first #1 hit.
January 28 – Elvis Presley makes his national television debut on The Dorsey Brothers Stage Show.
February 3 – The Symphony of the Air, conducted by Leonard Bernstein, gives the world première of Robert Moevs’s Fourteen Variations for Orchestra (composed in 1952) in New York.
February 11 – Henry Barraud’s Concertino for Piano and Winds receives its world-première performance by Eugene List and members of the New York Chamber Ensemble in New York City.
March – The Coasters’ recording career begins, with “Turtle Dovin'”.
March 10 – Carl Perkins’ single “Blue Suede Shoes” enters the R&B charts, the first time a country music artist has made it on the R&B charts.
March 21 – World première of Heitor Villa-Lobos’s Eleventh Symphony, by the Boston Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Charles Münch, at Carnegie Hall in New York City.
March 22 – Carl Perkins is injured in a car accident near Wilmington, Delaware, on his way to New York City to make an appearance on The Ed Sullivan Show. He spends several months in hospital.
March 24 – The first regularly scheduled nationally broadcast rock & roll show, Rock ‘n Roll Dance Party, with Alan Freed as host, premières on the CBS Radio Network.
March 26 – Colonel Tom Parker formally becomes Elvis Presley’s manager.
March 31 – Elvis Presley films a screen test for Paramount Pictures.
April 3 – Elvis Presley makes his first appearance on The Milton Berle Show.
April 6 – Paramount Pictures signs Elvis Presley to a three-picture deal.
April 10 – A group of racial segregationists (followers of Asa Earl Carter) rush the stage at a Nat King Cole concert in Birmingham, Alabama, but are quickly captured.
April 22 – The 2i’s Coffee Bar opens in Old Compton Street, Soho, London; its basement rapidly becomes a pioneering venue for rock & roll music in Britain, Tommy Steele being resident from July.
May – Gene Autry’s Melody Ranch, a CBS Radio Sunday evening program on the air since 1940 (except for a hiatus from 1942–45), ends its run.
May 2 – For the first time in Billboard magazine history, five singles appear in both the pop and R&B Top Ten charts. They are Elvis Presley’s “Heartbreak Hotel” (#1 pop, #6 R&B), Carl Perkins’ “Blue Suede Shoes” (#4 pop, #3 R&B), Little Richard’s “Long Tall Sally” (#9 pop, #1 R&B), the Platters’ “(You’ve Got) The Magic Touch” (#10 pop, #7 R&B) and Frankie Lymon and the Teenagers’ “Why Do Fools Fall in Love” (#7 pop, #4 R&B). Presley’s and Perkins’ singles also appeared on the country and western Top Ten chart at #1 and #2 respectively.
May 6
Elvis Presley appears on the Milton Berle show.
In Paris, Heitor Villa-Lobos records his Bachiana Brasileira No. 9 with the strings of the Orchestre National de la Radiodiffusion Française, for EMI.
May 6–28 – In Paris, Heitor Villa-Lobos supervises the recording of his Bachianas Brasileiras No. 6 by Fernand Dufrene (flute) and René Plessier (bassoon) and his Bachianas Brasileiras No. 2 with the Orchestre National de la Radiodiffusion Française, the four suites of his Descobrimento do Brasil, his Chôros No. 10 and his Invocação em defesa da patria, with Maria Kareska (soprano), the Chorale des Jeunesses musicales de France, and the Orchestre National de la Radiodiffusion Française for EMI.
May 8
Ernst Toch’s Third Symphony is awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Music.
Benjamin Britten’s opera Gloriana is given its US premiere in Cincinnati, in concert form conducted by Josef Krips.
May 24 – First-ever Eurovision Song Contest from the Kursaal Theatre, Lugano, Switzerland. Seven countries participate, each with two songs. Switzerland is declared the winner, with Lys Assia singing “Refrain”.
June – The winners of the Queen Elisabeth International Music Competition, held in Brussels and devoted this year to the piano, are:
First Prize: Vladimir Ashkenazy

Tuesday 9pm: MaxMusic 20th Century – 1956 (Part 1)

January 3 – Bach: The Goldberg Variations, Glenn Gould’s debut solo piano recording, is released by Columbia Records in the United States; it sells 40,000 copies by 1960.
January 26
The North American premiere of Carlos Chávez’s Third Symphony is given by the New York Philharmonic conducted by the composer.
Buddy Holly’s first recording sessions for Decca Records take place in Nashville, Tennessee.
Roy Orbison signs with Sun Records.
January 27 – Elvis Presley’s single “Heartbreak Hotel” / “I Was the One” is released. It goes on to be Elvis’s first #1 hit.
January 28 – Elvis Presley makes his national television debut on The Dorsey Brothers Stage Show.
February 3 – The Symphony of the Air, conducted by Leonard Bernstein, gives the world première of Robert Moevs’s Fourteen Variations for Orchestra (composed in 1952) in New York.
February 11 – Henry Barraud’s Concertino for Piano and Winds receives its world-première performance by Eugene List and members of the New York Chamber Ensemble in New York City.
March – The Coasters’ recording career begins, with “Turtle Dovin'”.
March 10 – Carl Perkins’ single “Blue Suede Shoes” enters the R&B charts, the first time a country music artist has made it on the R&B charts.
March 21 – World première of Heitor Villa-Lobos’s Eleventh Symphony, by the Boston Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Charles Münch, at Carnegie Hall in New York City.
March 22 – Carl Perkins is injured in a car accident near Wilmington, Delaware, on his way to New York City to make an appearance on The Ed Sullivan Show. He spends several months in hospital.
March 24 – The first regularly scheduled nationally broadcast rock & roll show, Rock ‘n Roll Dance Party, with Alan Freed as host, premières on the CBS Radio Network.
March 26 – Colonel Tom Parker formally becomes Elvis Presley’s manager.
March 31 – Elvis Presley films a screen test for Paramount Pictures.
April 3 – Elvis Presley makes his first appearance on The Milton Berle Show.
April 6 – Paramount Pictures signs Elvis Presley to a three-picture deal.
April 10 – A group of racial segregationists (followers of Asa Earl Carter) rush the stage at a Nat King Cole concert in Birmingham, Alabama, but are quickly captured.
April 22 – The 2i’s Coffee Bar opens in Old Compton Street, Soho, London; its basement rapidly becomes a pioneering venue for rock & roll music in Britain, Tommy Steele being resident from July.
May – Gene Autry’s Melody Ranch, a CBS Radio Sunday evening program on the air since 1940 (except for a hiatus from 1942–45), ends its run.
May 2 – For the first time in Billboard magazine history, five singles appear in both the pop and R&B Top Ten charts. They are Elvis Presley’s “Heartbreak Hotel” (#1 pop, #6 R&B), Carl Perkins’ “Blue Suede Shoes” (#4 pop, #3 R&B), Little Richard’s “Long Tall Sally” (#9 pop, #1 R&B), the Platters’ “(You’ve Got) The Magic Touch” (#10 pop, #7 R&B) and Frankie Lymon and the Teenagers’ “Why Do Fools Fall in Love” (#7 pop, #4 R&B). Presley’s and Perkins’ singles also appeared on the country and western Top Ten chart at #1 and #2 respectively.
May 6
Elvis Presley appears on the Milton Berle show.
In Paris, Heitor Villa-Lobos records his Bachiana Brasileira No. 9 with the strings of the Orchestre National de la Radiodiffusion Française, for EMI.
May 6–28 – In Paris, Heitor Villa-Lobos supervises the recording of his Bachianas Brasileiras No. 6 by Fernand Dufrene (flute) and René Plessier (bassoon) and his Bachianas Brasileiras No. 2 with the Orchestre National de la Radiodiffusion Française, the four suites of his Descobrimento do Brasil, his Chôros No. 10 and his Invocação em defesa da patria, with Maria Kareska (soprano), the Chorale des Jeunesses musicales de France, and the Orchestre National de la Radiodiffusion Française for EMI.
May 8
Ernst Toch’s Third Symphony is awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Music.
Benjamin Britten’s opera Gloriana is given its US premiere in Cincinnati, in concert form conducted by Josef Krips.
May 24 – First-ever Eurovision Song Contest from the Kursaal Theatre, Lugano, Switzerland. Seven countries participate, each with two songs. Switzerland is declared the winner, with Lys Assia singing “Refrain”.
June – The winners of the Queen Elisabeth International Music Competition, held in Brussels and devoted this year to the piano, are:
First Prize: Vladimir Ashkenazy