April 9: This day, that year in music history

The day the Beatles broke up

1970: 50 years ago today, Paul McCartney quit the Beatles effectively ending the magical and history-making era of one of pop music’s greatest bands.

McCartney announced that he was embarking on a solo career and had no plans to record with the band in the future.

Rock groups had split before but this of seismic proportions · and big enough to shake the world’s music industry.

McCartney's parting shot was that he was embarking on a solo career with plans to form his own band, Wings. But it was not until three years later that released his first single. “My Love,” on the very same day that he had quit the Beatles.

How a song about a dying man became a hit

1974: Terry Jacks became the first Canadian to hit #1 on the U.K. Singles chart since Paul Anka in 1957 with the smash hit "Seasons In The Sun".

The song was originally written and performed in French by the Belgian poet-composer Jacques Brel in 1961 under the title, "Le Moribond" ("The Dying Man. American poet Rod McKuen translated the lyrics to English, and in 1964 The Kingston Trio sang it into the charts.

The song tells the story of an old man who was dying of a broken heart because his best friend was having an affair with his wife.

Grunge act Nirvana did a version of this song, but it didn't appear until 2004 on the With The Lights Out out boxed set

‘Season in the Sun”, helped Jerry Jacks win the Juno award (the Canadian Grammys) for Male Vocalist of the Year in 1974. The song also won an award for Contemporary Single of the Year and Pop Music Single of the Year, and Best Selling Single.

Before 1969 there was no official singles chart

1977: The new Singles chart, which is a compilation of sales of records that the music market used to measure a song's popularity by sales, was out on this date and Swedish stars ABBA had the privilege of scoring a first American #1 with "Dancing Queen".

"Don't Give Up On Us" by David Soul was #2 and "Don't Leave Me This Way", by Thelma Houston, was third.

Other notable songs on the new singles chart’s Top 10 list included10cc with "The Things We Do For Love", the Eagles’ "Hotel California" and Barbra Streisand's former #1 "Evergreen.”

Why Bill Wyman married a teenager

1989: Bill Wyman, the 52-year--old bassist of the Rolling Stones announced he was getting married to 19-year old Mandy Smith. The wedding took place on June 2, 1989.

Wyman said that the reason he chose to marry Smith was because he knew that women with any more intelligence or maturity would have said "No.”

Wyman revealed that the first time that he saw Smith was at London's Lyceum Ballroom when she was 13 years old at the time and that he felt like he had been "whacked over the head with a hammer."

The couple separated in 1991 and In April 1993, Wyman married Suzanne Accosta. The couple has three daughters.