It happened on 24 September
The head of Pathé-Marconi is laid to rest in Samois-sur-Seine
On 24 September 1976, Pierre Bourgeois died in Samois-sur-Seine, where he is buried.
He had become chairman of Pathé-Marconi at the age of forty-five. In the 1950s, his record label was home to Édith Piaf, Maria Callas, Boris Christoff and Herbert von Karajan. He had succeeded in getting the tax on LP records halved, to make them more affordable, and developed sound and light shows at major French monuments.
He ended his career by bringing ITC’s British series to French-language television.
The day *Nevermind* was released
On 24 September 1991, a virtually unknown band from Seattle released their second album, *Nevermind*.
It entered the Billboard 200 at number 144. It did not reach number one until 11 January 1992, almost four months later, a week after Michael Jackson’s *Dangerous*, which it eventually displaced. It is often said that *Nevermind* swept Michael Jackson aside upon its release. It took him the whole of autumn.
In 2004, the Library of Congress included it in the National Recording Registry, the list of recordings that the United States preserves as part of its cultural heritage.
Two discs for the price of one day
On the same day, 24 September 1991, the Red Hot Chili Peppers’ *Blood Sugar Sex Magik*, recorded with Rick Rubin, was also released. It was the album that transformed the band from a Californian curiosity into a global act.
Two albums that reshaped the decade hit the record shops on the same Tuesday. No one, at the time, thought of turning it into a joint poster.
And on the very same day, fifteen years earlier, a man who had spent his life making records more affordable died in Samois-sur-Seine. A mere coincidence of dates, nothing more.
