One of the '80's most massive sellers takes over... -- Birthdays for Waylon and Harry, we miss 'em & God bless 'em...

(Courtesy of Warner Bros. Records)
(Courtesy of Warner Bros. Records)
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6/15/1985 (35 years ago today) - Dire Straits start an impressive nine weeks in a row at No. 1 on the U.S. album chart with the near-perfect "Brothers In Arms" -- Good Lord man, "Money For Nothing", "So Far Away" and "Walk Of Life" are still getting lots of radio airplay as you read this, even -- The bands fifth studio album boasts some incredible stats: 10 weeks at No. 1 in the U.K.; a jaw-dropping 34 weeks at No. 1 in Australia; 239 non-consecutive weeks on the Dutch Album Chart in the Netherlands; nine million sold in the U.S.; ten mill in England (making it the seventh best selling album in Brit-chart history), and a grand total of over 35 million sold worldwide! Big, big, big...

6/15/1933 - Born on this day in Littlefield, Texas (where else but...), country legend Waylon Jennings -- Early on, Waylon worked as a radio DJ, played bass guitar for Buddy Holly (and unintentionally missed the flight that killed Holly, The Big Bopper and Richie Valens on the infamous "day the music died") -- With Willie Nelson, Tompall Glasar and the very striking Jessi Colter, he made the ultra-classic "Wanted! The Outlaws" album, which became the first-ever C&W LP to achieve platinum status -- Waylon was also part of a Traveling Wilburys-type group long before there ever was one, so we gotta salute country super group The Highwaymen whose other members were none other than Willie Nelson, Kris Kristofferson and Johnny Cash, great gosh'o'mighty!!! Jennings, who was also the narrator for "The Dukes Of Hazzard" TV show, passed away from complications due to a long battle with diabetes, February 23, 2002, at age 64. One of C&W's most cherished real-deals, no doubt...

6/15/1941 - Born on this day, criminally under-appreciated singer-songwriter Harry Nilsson -- A remarkable vocalist with a three-octave range, Harry was probably the only pop-rock artist of his time to achieve commercial success without ever performing major public concerts or going out on tour! -- Voted No. 62 on Rolling Stone's "100 Greatest Songwriters Of All Time" for his unique ability to {take a deep breath here} bridge 1960's baroque psychedelia with studio-overdub-experimentation, mix that up with Caribbean influences and the more personal singer-songwriter styles of the early '70's, all while tackling The Great American Songbook long, long, long before everybody else on the planet made it their chic "go to" -- There's so much to say about Nilsson and not enough room: just go out and get "The Point!" or "Nilsson Schmilsson" and we promise you will feel much better. Harry succumbed to his hard lifestyle January 15, 1994 at age 52. Genuinely incredible talent, take a moment to look and listen:

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"You can jump into the fire but you'll never be free...", xoxo!

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