"Solid Gold"...
If you're looking for where we got "solid gold" from, look no further than this date, March 14, 1958. That was the day the newly formed Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) gave out its first Gold plaque signifying the sale of one million records. And the recipient was...................Perry Como for the single "Catch A Falling Star". Gold records for albums were awarded for the sale of 500,000 copies. The cast album of "Oklahoma" by Gordon Macrae was the first winner of that award...
| As the sale of records reached mega-proportions and included other configurations, additional awards followed. The Platinum award was added in 1976 for the sale of cassettes, CD's, 8-tracks and the like, totaling one million units. The multi-Platinum award came in 1984 and in 1999, the Diamond (not for Neil) awards which went to artists selling10 million units or more of an album or single. Maybe it's just me but I always thought they should give out the Chopped Liver award for a bomb (as in, what do I look like, chopped liver ?)... But seriously...let's acknowledge some major achievements in sales over the years. Johnny Taylor's "Disco Lady" was the first Platinum single. The first Platinum album was The Eagles' "Their Greatest Hits 1971-1975", an LP that has reached platinum 26 times to become the best selling album of the 20th century. Michael Jackson's "Thriller", one of the first multi-platinum albums held the top album slot from 1984 until being tied and eventually broken in 1999 the year the Diamond award (10 million copies or more of an album or single) started. How many Diamond award records have been sold you might ask ? Representing all genres of music over the last 50 years, 900 million titles in U.S. sales and counting, according to the RIAA. To the RIAA, can you just consider the "Chopped Liver" award ? More March 14 Memories... 1743) The 1st town meeting in America is held at Faneuil Hall in Boston... 1794) Eli Whitney receives a patent for his cotton gin... 1923) President Warren Harding becomes the 1st President to file an income tax report (if you think Presidents, Vice-Presidents and members of Congress should pay more taxes than the rest of us, raise your hands. I thought so.)... 1958) Perry Como receives the 1st gold record for "Catch A Falling Star" (feature story)... 1958) "Tequila" by the Champs is #1 (Glen Campbell, Jim Seals and Dash Crofts all join the group after "Tequila" tops the charts)... 1961) Former Yankee GM George Weiss becomes President of the New York Mets... 1964) A Dallas jury finds Jack Ruby quilty of the murder of Lee Harvey Oswald... 1965) Petula Clark makes her American TV debut on "The Ed Sullivan Show"... 1972) Carole King wins a Grammy for "Record of the Year", "It's Too Late" and "Album of the Year" for "Tapestry". Carly Simon wins a Grammy for "Best New Artist"... 1979) "Substitute" is the "A" side of a Gloria Gaynor's single but the "B" side is #1, "I Will Survive"... 2000) George W. Bush and Al Gore sweep their Southern primaries and head for a showdown in November... 2003) Robert Blake is released from jail on $1.5 million bail, having been jailed for the murder of wife, Bonny Lee... 2004) Vladimir Putin is re-elected as Russian President with 70% of the vote... (To ensure accuracy of dates and content, multiple reference sources are used in the timeline)... Happy Birthday To... 1931) One-hit wonder (for "Sea of Love") Phil Phillips... 1933) Quincy Jones... 1933) Michael Caine... 1947) Billy Crystal... 1950) Rick Dees... 1958) Monaco's Prince Albert... Commentary... I've received lots of e-mails and phone calls about yesterday's blog, commemorating the 39th anniversary of WRKO's start-up and would like to acknowledge the people who sent them (alphabetical order): Rich Appel, Gordon Brown, John Gorman, Bill Hahn, Bob Henabery, Ron Hurst, Tom Kennedy, Harvey Mednick, Joe McCoy, Paul Power, Barry Resnick, Frank Kingston Smith, Dick Summer and Perry S. Ury asked me to pass along some of his comments. Perry said that the success of WRKO "was truly a group operation" and added "I never worked with a better group. My best to you and all the gang"... (Today is the 73rd day of 2006 with 292 days left in the year, 6 days until spring and 18 days until opening day)... |
