Mental Floss

MUSIC HISTORY

Illustration by Mental Floss. Image: Rischgitz, Getty Images

Haunted houses wouldn't be as scary without the Baroque master's 'Toccata and Fugue in D Minor.' But that's not all we have to thank him for.

Lucas Reilly


Hulton Archive/Getty Images

On February 24, 1969, Johnny Cash performed "A Boy Named Sue" for the first time at California's San Quentin State Prison. The words, however, were written by Shel Silverstein.

Stacy Conradt


MGM

The Oscar-nominated musical is also a history lesson about Hollywood in the late 1920s, when silent pictures were giving way to talkies.

Eric D Snider




Express Newspapers/Getty Images

On February 9, 1964, The Beatles—identified in a press release as a wildly popular quartet of English recording stars—performed on 'The Ed Sullivan Show' in New York City and changed the course of music history.

Stacy Conradt
Brunswick Records, Public Domain, Wikimedia Commons

On February 3, 1959, musicians Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens, and J. P. "The Big Bopper" Richardson (along with pilot Roger Peterson) were killed in a plane crash near Clear Lake, Iowa. The date became known as "The Day the Music Died."

Jeff Merron