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

(Courtesy of RCA Records)
(Courtesy of RCA Records)
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6/15/1985 (32 years ago today) - Dire Straits starts an impressive nine-weeks-in-a-row at No. 1 on the U.S. album chart with the near-perfect "Brothers In Arms" -- "Money For Nothing", "So Far Away" and "Walk Of Life" insure radio airplay to this day -- 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 Charts 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 30 million sold worldwide! Big, big, big...

6/15/1933 - Born on this day (in Littlefield, Texas, of course), country legend Waylon Jennings --  Early on, worked as a radio DJ and played bass with Buddy Holly, unintentionally missing the flight that killed Holly, The Big Bopper and Richie Valens on the infamous "day the music died" -- With Willie Nelson, Tompall Glasar and Jessi Colter, made the 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 band long before there ever was a Traveling Wilburys, so we gotta salute the country supergroup The Highwaymen whose other members were Willie Nelson, Kris Kristofferson and Johnny Cash, great gosh'o'mighty!!! -- Jennings, who was also the narrator of "The Dukes Of Hazzard", passed away from complications of a long battle with diabetes, February 23, 2002 at age 64.

6/15/1941 - Born on this day, radically under-appreciated singer-songwriter Harry Nilsson -- A remarkable vocalist with a three-octave range(!), Harry was {maybe} the only pop-rock artist of his time to achieve commercial success without ever performing major public concerts or going on tour -- Voted No. 62 on Rolling Stone's "100 Greatest Songwriters Of All Time" for his unique ability to {deep breath now} bridge '60's baroque psychedelic pop with studio-overdub-experimentation, toss in Caribbean influences as well as the more personal singer-songwriter styles of the early '70's, all while also tackling The Great American Songbook long, long, long before everybody else on the planet made it chic to do so -- There's so much more to say about Nilsson and nowhere nearly enough room: just go out and get "The Point!" or "Nilsson Schmilsson", and we promise you will feel much better...Harry succumbed to a hard lifestyle January 15, 1994; he was 52. Genuinely incredible talent, take a look and listen:

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"Pour yourself a cup of tea/Then think about the bubbles...", xoxo!

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