Quick Hits: February 22

The Muppet Show is now on Disney+ and you’d better believe I’m watching it. The first episode’s guest star was the incomparable Rita Moreno.

The Go-Go’s have finally – FINALLY – been nominated for the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, after fifteen years of eligibility. The most successful all-female rock band ever, they still look and sound fantastic. My sister shared this amazing video with me yesterday – enjoy! I’m off to listen to Beauty and the Beat.

It Happened One Night, directed by Frank Capra and starring Clark Gable and Claudette Colbert, opened on this day in 1934. It would go on to win the top five Academy Awards, the first of only three films to do so.

Marni Nixon was born on this day in 1929. Nixon was the ghost singer who provided the vocals for Deborah Kerr in The King and I, Natalie Wood in West Side Story and Audrey Hepburn in My Fair Lady. She also played Sister Sophia in The Sound of Music. Nixon died in 2016 at the age of 86.

Genesis released their first single “Silent Sun” on this day in 1968, and it is bizarre in its conventionality. Unlike future recordings, which delved into prog and art rock, “Silent Sun” is pure pop confection. The song was written by Peter Gabriel and Tony Banks in an effort to secure the approval of record producer Jonathan King, who would go on to produce their debut album From Genesis to Revelation. Knowing King was a Bee Gees fan, Gabriel and Banks attempted to replicate the Bee Gees sound with this piano-driven romantic ballad. Did they succeed? Listen and decide for yourself.