1984 - Music

Music

Hollywood musical: Jonathan Demme's Stop Making Sense with The Talking Heads.

Stage musicals: The Rink 2/9 at New York's Martin Beck Theater, with Liza Minnelli, Chita Rivera, music by John Kander, lyrics by Fred Ebb, book by Terrence McNally, 204 perfs.; Starlight Express 3/27 at London's Apollo Theatre, with performers on roller skates imitating locomotives, music by Andrew Lloyd Webber, lyrics by Richard Stilgoe; Sunday in the Park with George 5/2 at New York's Booth Theater with Mandy Patinkin as painter Georges Seurat, music and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim, 540 perfs.; The Hired Man 10/31 at London's Astoria Theatre, with music by English composer Howard Goodall, 29, book and lyrics by Melvyn Bragg, 45; The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole, Aged 13 3/4 12/12 at Wyndham's Theatre, London, with book by Sue Townsend, songs by Ken Howard and Olive Blakeley.

Former West End musical star Binnie Hale dies at London January 10 at age 84; Ethel Merman is found dead in her New York apartment February 15 at age 76—10 months after undergoing surgery for a brain tumor; former Broadway musical star Ray Middleton dies at Panorama City, Calif., April 10 at age 77.

Nashville, Tenn.-born soprano Dawn Upshaw makes her Metropolitan Opera debut at age 24 and will be a Met regular for decades.

New Orleans-born trumpet virtuoso Wynton Marsalis, 22, wins Grammy awards in both the jazz and classical music categories.

Popular songs: "What's Love Got to Do with It?" by Scottish songwriters Graham Lyle and Terry Britten; Born in the U.S.A. (album) Bruce Springsteen; "I Just Called to Say I Love You" by Stevie Wonder (for the film The Woman in Red); "Against All Odds (Take a Look at Me Now)" by British songwriter Phil Collins, 33; The Unforgettable Fire (album) by U2 includes the single "Bad" and is based on the U.S. nuclear bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945; Goodbye Cruel World (album) by Elvis Costello; Purple Rain (album) by Prince includes "Darling Nikki," which will lead to the founding of Parents' Music Resource Center with a mission to require warning labels on albums; "Careless Whisper" by British songwriters George Michael, 21, and Andrew Ridgley; Like a Virgin (album) by Madonna includes the title song and "Material Girl"; Private Dancer (album) by Tina Turner makes her an international pop diva with hits that include "I Might Have Been Queen," "Show Some Respect," and "Better Be Good to Me" (co-written with Holly Knight); "Do They Know It's Christmas" by Dublin-born songwriter Bob Geldof, 33, and Midge Ure.

Onetime émigrée nightclub singer-cabaret owner Bricktop (Ada Beatrice Queen Victoria Louise Virginia Smith) dies at New York January 31 at age 89; onetime bandleader Claude Hopkins at New York February 19 at age 80; soul singer-songwriter Marvin Gaye Jr. is shot to death by his 70-year-old clergyman father at Los Angeles April 1 on the eve of his 45th birthday; jazz pianist Count Basie dies of cancer at Hollywood, Fla., April 25 at age 80 (jazz singer Joe Williams, now 65, sings the Duke Ellington song "Come Sunday" at Basie's funeral); songwriter-composer-conductor Gordon Jenkins dies of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (Lou Gehrig's disease) at Malibu May 1 at age 73; choral music composer Randall Thompson at Boston July 9 at age 85; blues singer Willie Mae "Big Mama" Thornton of heart and liver complications at Los Angeles July 25 at age 57 (drug and alcohol abuse has shrunk her weight from 350 pounds to 95); blues singer Alberta Hunter dies at New York October 17 at age 89; former American Federation of Musicians president James C. Petrillo at his native Chicago October 23 at age 92.