Where Were you on this Day in Music History: October 10th!

A Day in Music History        

October 10th...

Art Todd

March 11^th, 1914 - October 10^th, 2007 (93)

Births

1908: Johnny Green

1914: Ivory Joe Hunter

1917: Thelonious Monk

1923: Louis Gottlieb

1943: Denis D'Ell (The Honeycombs)

1945: Alan Cartwright (Procol Harum)

1945: Jerry Lacroix (Blood Sweat and Tears, Edgar Winter's White Trash)

1946: John Prine

1946: Ben Vereen

1948: Cyril Neville (The Neville Brothers)

1958: Tanya Tucker

Deaths

2007: Art Todd

Events

1902: Kalamazoo, MI, mandolin maker Orville Gibson founds the Gibson Mandolin-Guitar Mfg. Co, Ltd. In 1936 it would create the first commercially successful electric guitar.

1959: Paul McCartney helps to force the last non-Beatle member of the Quarrymen, Ken Brown, from the skiffle group after Brown gets paid for an engagement at Liverpool's Casbah Club for which he was too sick to perform. This leaves the Quarrymen as John, Paul, and George; by May of the following year, the group, now featuring Stu Sutcliffe and Pete Best, would be known as the "Beatals."

1959: Brenda Lee is diagnosed with thyroid deficiency -- the first of many neck problems for the full-throated singer -- and admitted to a Nashville hospital.

1970: The first issue of the legendary UK rock newspaper Sounds is published.

1970: The US' Federal Communications Commission (FCC) head, Nicholas Johnson, responds to recent comments made by Vice President Spiro Agnew that attacked radio stations for playing songs that contained "drug culture propaganda... (in) too many of the lyrics the message of the drug culture is purveyed," saying, "If we really want to do something about drugs, let's do something about life... The song writers are trying to help us understand our plight and deal with it. It's about the only leadership we're getting. They're not really urging you to adopt a heroin distribution program, Mr. Vice President."

1978: At tonight's Aerosmith show in Philadelphia, PA, an audience member tosses a "cherry bomb" firecracker onto the stage, injuring singer Steven Tyler and guitarist Joe Perry. Thereafter, the band performs behind a chain-link fence.

1979: Los Angeles Mayor Tom Bradley declares today "Fleetwood Mac Day" and unveils a star for the band on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 6608 Hollywood Blvd.

1979: The film The Rose, a thinly-veiled biopic of Janis Joplin starring Bette Midler, premieres in Hollywood.

1997: Jimmy Osmond becomes the proud father of his second child, Zachary James, who becomes the 50th member of the Osmond clan.

1999: Las Vegas' Grand Hotel holds an auction of several hundred thousand dollars' worth of Elvis memorabilia, including the King's wristwatch, cigar box, and his 1956 Lincoln Continental.

2001: Dennis DeYoung sues Styx, his former band, for touring and singing his songs without him. He'd left the band in 1999 due to chronic fatigue syndrome.

Releases

1959: The Miracles, "Bad Girls"

1964: The Shangri-Las, "Leader Of The Pack"

1970: Pink Floyd, Atom Heart Mother

1970: Smokey Robinson and the Miracles, "The Tears Of A Clown"

Recording

1940: Lanny Ross, "Moonlight And Roses"

1963: Elvis Presley: "Once Is Enough," "Catchin' On Fast," "Anyone," "Smokey Mountain Boy," "There's Gold In The Mountains," "One Boy, Two Little Girls," "Kissin' Cousins," "Barefoot Ballad," "Tender Feeling"

1968: The Beatles: "Piggies," "Glass Onion," "Why Don't We Do It In The Road?"

Charts

1953: Stan Freberg's "St. George And The Dragonet" hits #1

1956: Elvis Presley's "Love Me Tender" enters the charts

1960: Larry Verne's "Mr. Custer" hits #1

1970: Neil Diamond's "Cracklin' Rosie" hits #1

Where Were you on this Day in Music History: October 9th!

Jacques Brel

 April 8^th, 1929 - October 9^th, 1978 (aged 49)

A Day in Music History        

October 9th...

Births

1937: Pat Burke (The Foundations)

1939: O.V. Wright

1940: John Lennon

1944: John Entwistle (The Who)

1944: Peter Tosh

1948: Jackson Browne

Deaths

1978: Jacques Brel

1988: Cliff Gallup (Gene Vincent and his Blue Caps)

Events

1959: At 22 years of age, Bobby Darin becomes the youngest performer to headline the Sands Hotel in Las Vegas' famed Copa Room.

1962: The BBC bans Bobby "Boris" Pickett's hit "Monster Mash," feeling the subject matter -- comical as it is -- may be deemed grotesque or otherwise tasteless to some listeners.

1964: The Rolling Stones cancel an upcoming South African tour when the British Musicians Union declares an embargo of the country due to their apartheid polices.

1964: Bobby Darin begins filming his eighth movie, That Funny Feeling, in Hollywood.

1967: Legendary New York DJ Murray The K is fired from station WOR-FM, where he had moved to take advantage of the new free-form format of FM radio, when the station's new owners decided to move to a set playlist.

1967: Doc Severinsen, already a member of the house band on NBC-TV's Tonight Show, replaces Skitch Henderson as its leader.

1969: BBC's Top Of The Pops refuses to play the Number One hit in the country for the first time. The song, Serge Gainsbourg's "Je T'Aime Moi Non Plus," is considered one of the first "orgasm records," that is, one of the first to feature heavy female breathing and moaning.

1973: Priscilla Presley finalizes her divorce from Elvis with a second, revised settlement giving her $14,200 a year in support, $725,000 in cash now, half of the sale of the couple's Palm Springs home, and five percent of all new recordings. The ex-couple leave the courthouse holding hands.

1975: On father John Lennon's 35th birthday, Yoko Ono gives birth to Sean Ono Taro Lennon.

1978: The Faces' Ian McLagan marries his longtime girlfriend, former model (and first wife of Keith Moon) Kim Kerrigan.

1980: Despite years of hits in the UK, Gary Glitter declares bankruptcy.

1984: The extraordinarily popular children's show Thomas The Tank Engine And Friends begins its run on BBC-TV, featuring a narrator by the name of Ringo Starr.

2000: Barry White gives a speech to the debate squad at Oxford University.

2006: During tonight's show at Madison Square Garden, Barbra Streisand loses control and yells at a heckler to "Shut the ---- up."

Releases

1971: Van Morrison, "Wild Night"

1978: David Bowie, Stage

1979: Styx, "Babe"

Recording

 1931: Russ Columbo, "Prisoner Of Love"

1958: Eddie Cochran, "C'mon Everybody"

1964: The Beach Boys, "Dance, Dance, Dance"

1968: The Beatles, "Long Long Long," "Why Don't We Do It In The Road"

Charts

1961: Ray Charles' "Hit The Road, Jack" hits #1

1965: The Beatles' "Yesterday" hits #1

1965: The Miracles' "My Girl Has Gone" enters the charts

1976: Walter Murphy and the Big Apple Band's "A Fifth Of Beethoven" hits #1

Certifications

1973: Paul Simon's "Loves Me Like A Rock" is certified gold

Where Were you on this Day in Music History: October 8th!

A Day in Music History        

October 8th...

Barrie Wilson A.K.A,  B.J Wilson

March 18, 1947 - October 8, 1990 (aged 43)

Births

1934: Doc Green (The Drifters)

1940: Fred Cash (The Impressions)

1941: George Bellamy (The Tornadoes)

1941: Dave Arbus (East Of Eden)

1942: Buzz Clifford

1944: Susan Raye

1945: Ray Royer (Procol Harum)

1945: Butch Rillera (Redbone)

1947: Tony Wilson (Hot Chocolate)

1949: Hamish Stuart (The Average White Band)

1950: Robert "Kool" Bell (Kool and the Gang)

Deaths

1990: Barrie Wilson (Procol Harum)

Events

1935: Bandleader Ozzie Nelson marries his lead vocalist, Harriet Hilliard.

1962: Joining what he is told is a gospel music tour in England with Sam Cooke, Little Richard instead finds himself part of a rock and roll revue (featuring a young Billy Preston on keyboards). Cooke's popularity with his secular set convinces Richard to return to rock, and his self-imposed exile is ended... for the first time, anyway.

1966: Cream drummer Ginger Baker collapses while on stage at a Sussex University gig in England, just after completing his epic 20-minute solo on "Toad."

1968: "Mama" Cass Elliot's initial solo engagement at Caesars' Palace is a disaster, with Elliot collapsing from exhaustion and her backup band ill-rehearsed. While hospitalized, she contracts tonsillitis, forcing the cancellation of the entire two-week engagement.

1977: NBC airs The Paul Simon Special, which again reunites the singer with old friend Art Garfunkel.

1985: Little Richard passes out behind the wheel while driving his sports car in West Hollywood and runs into a telephone pole, seriously injuring him and forcing him to miss his induction in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. After he recovers, he returns yet again to spiritual music.

1987: The acclaimed Chuck Berry documentary Hail! Hail! Rock 'n' Roll premieres in US theaters on the same day that Berry himself is awarded a star on the Hollywood Walk Of Fame at 1777 N. Vine.

1987: Promoting their space-themed Afterburner record, ZZ Top book passage on what is announced as the first passenger flight to the moon.

1988: The Rolling Stones' Keith Richards performs his first solo single, "Take It So Hard," on tonight's episode of Saturday Night Live.

1989: After Rolling Stone Ron Wood suggested the Who were reforming for the money alone, Who guitarist Pete Townshend publicly answered: "Mick needs a lot more than I do. His last album was a flop," referring to the Stones' legendary miscue Dirty Work.

1992: The US Postal Service issues a booklet of commemorative rock and roll stamps featuring Elvis Presley, Buddy Holly, Otis Redding, Bill Haley, Ritchie Valens, Clyde McPhatter, and Dinah Washington.

Releases

1979: Fleetwood Mac, Tusk

Recording

1941: Benny Goodman, "Buckle Down Winsocki"

1957: Jerry Lee Lewis, "Great Balls Of Fire"

1964: The Beatles, "She's A Woman"

1968: The Beatles, "Long Long Long," "I'm So Tired," "The Continuing Story Of Bungalow Bill"

Charts

1955: The Four Aces' "Love Is A Many-Splendored Thing" hits #1

1977: Billy Joel's LP The Stranger enters the charts

Certifications

1974: Dionne Warwick and The Spinners' "Then Came You" is certified gold

Where Were you on this Day in Music History: October 7th!

A Day in Music History        

October 7th...

Smiley Lewis

July 5, 1913 - October 7, 1966 (aged 53)

Births

1911: Vaughn Monroe

1911: "Papa" Jo Jones

1922: Martha Stewart

1927: Al Martino

1939: Colin Cooper (The Climax Blues Band)

1941: Tony Silvester (The Main Ingredient)

1941: Martin Murray (The Honeycombs)

1945: Kevin Godley (10cc)

1949: David Hope (Kansas)

1950: David Taylor (Edison Lighthouse)

Deaths

1966: Smiley Lewis

Events

1950: CBS debuts The Frank Sinatra Show, a variety program and the first TV show for the crooner. Though he has a five-year contract, the show only lasts two seasons.

1952: The Philadelphia dance show Bandstand, hosted by Bob Horn and, later, by Dick Clark as American Bandstand, debuts on WFIL-TV.

1957: Elvis Presley's upcoming first Christmas album, entitled simply Elvis' Christmas Album, goes gold in pre-orders nine days before its release.

1959: Connie Stevens lands the role that will make her famous, as the TV detective show Hawaiian Eye debuts on ABC-TV.

1964: The Beatles appear (on tape) during a special British Invasion-themed episode of the popular ABC-TV variety show Shindig!, performing "Kansas City / Hey-Hey-Hey-Hey!," "I'm A Loser," and "Boys."

1967: After a London hotel accuses the Mamas and the Papas' Cass Elliot of running out on her bill, the singer is jailed overnight and strip-searched, forcing the cancellation of both an upcoming gig and television appearance.

1967: Promoter Sid Bernstein, who had promoted the Beatles at their first two Shea Stadium concerts, offers one million dollars to the group, who is retired from the road, to perform a third concert there. They refuse.

1968: At the fifth game in baseball's World Series (Detroit vs. St. Louis), Jose Feliciano stuns and outrages the attendees with his jazzy acoustic take on the US National Anthem.

1975: The US Court of Appeals overturns the longstanding deportation order for John Lennon, ruling that Lennon, in being held accountable for violating a foreign law (a 1968 rap for possession of marijuana in England), had been denied due process.

1976: Dennis Edwards announces he is leaving the Temptations. Four years later, he would rejoin for the group's successful Power album.

1978: The Rolling Stones perform their new single, "Beast Of Burden," on tonight's episode of NBC-TV's Saturday Night Live.

1978: Merle Haggard marries third wife Leona Williams, a bass player and singer with Loretta Lynn. The marriage lasts six years.

1978: Billboard magazine reveals that Marvin Gaye has declared bankruptcy twice in the past year claiming debts of over seven million dollars.

1982: Led Zeppelin guitarist Jimmy Page is given a one year suspended sentence for cocaine possession.

Releases

1971: Michael Jackson, "Got To Be There"

Recording

1940: Artie Shaw, "Stardust"

1960: Elvis Presley, "Flaming Star"

1968: The Beatles, "Long Long Long"

Certifications

1969: The Youngbloods' "Get Together" is certifie

Where Were you on this Day in Music History: October 6th!

A Day in Music History        

October 6th...

Nelson Riddle

June 1, 1921 - October 6, 1985 (aged 64)

Births

1945: Robin Shaw (The Flowerpot Men)

1946: Millie Small

1949: Thomas McClary (The Commodores)

1949: Bobby Farrell (Boney M)

1951: Kevin Cronin (REO Speedwagon)

1951: Gavin Sutherland (The Sutherland Brothers)

Deaths

1966: Johnny Kidd

1978: Johnny O'Keefe

1985: Nelson Riddle

Events

1967: Jimi Hendrix performs on the new BBC 1 radio show Top Gear, with Stevie Wonder, who was visiting the studios, sitting in on drums for a jam called (appropriately enough) "Jammin'" and a version of Stevie's "I Was Made To Love Her."

1971: Pat Boone guest-stars on tonight's "The Academy" episode of NBC-TV's thriller Night Gallery.

1977: Rod Stewart is named in a $15 million "palimony" suit by actress Britt Eklund.

1978: ABBA songwriter / musician Benny Anderson marries fellow band vocalist Anni-Frid Lyngstad in Sweden. The marriage lasts three years. (The group's other male-female pair had been married in 1971.)

1978: The Rolling Stones' Mick Jagger apologizes to activist Jesse Jackson, who raised a public outcry over the lyrics of the Stones' recent song "Some Girls," specifically the line "black girls just want to get ------ all night." Jagger refuses calls to change the lyrics.

1980: With the disco craze officially over, The Bee Gees file a $200 million mismanagement lawsuit against longtime manager Robert Stigwood and his label RSO Records, one that would within the year be settled out of court.

1991: The Fox TV network airs the special Ray Charles: 50 Years Of Music, featuring guests Stevie Wonder, Willie Nelson, Paul McCartney, Randy Travis, Michael Bolton, and more.

1991: Michael Jackson gives Elizabeth Taylor away to Larry Fortensky during her eighth wedding, held at Jackson's California ranch, Neverland.

2002: Mick Jagger of the Rolling Stones donates 100,000 pounds to the school he once attended in Dartford, England, for musical instruments and a band director. The resultant musical center is named after the singer.

2006: Before Game Three of baseball's AL Divisional Playoff in Detroit, MI, the Four Tops sing the US national anthem.

Releases

1956: Elvis Presley, "Love Me Tender"

1969: The Beatles, "Something" b/w "Come Together"

1979: The Eagles, "Heartache Tonight"

Recording

1941: Claude Thornhill, "Autumn Nocturne"

1964: The Beatles, "Eight Days A Week"

1965: Gary Lewis and the Playboys, "She's Just My Style," "Sure Gonna Miss Her"

1967: The Beatles, "Blue Jay Way"

1976: Salsoul Orchestra, "Christmas Medley"

Charts

1973: Cher's "Half-Breed" hits #1

1979: Robert John's "Sad Eyes" hits #1

Certifications

1976: Rick Dees and His Cast of Idiots' "Disco Duck" is certified gold

Where Were you on this Day in Music History: October 5th!

A Day in Music History        

October 5th...

Jud Strunk

June 11, 1936 - October 5, 1981 (aged 45)

Births

1907: Mrs. Miller

1924: Bill Dana

1935: Margie Singleton

1938: Carlo Mastrangelo (Dion and the Belmonts)

1938: Johnny Duncan

1939: Abi Ofarim

1942: Richard Street (The Temptations)

1943: Steve Miller

1947: Brian Johnson (AC/DC)

1948: Lucius Ross (Funkadelic)

1949: B.W. Stevenson

1949: Brian Connolly (sweet)

Deaths

1981: Jud Strunk

1992: Eddie Kendricks (The Temptations)

1997: Arthur Tracey

2005: Michael Gibbins (Badfinger)

Events

1947: The first taped radio show is broadcast on ABC, a performance by Bing Crosby that demonstrated the capabilities of the new Ampex 200 recorder.

1957: Cliff Richard plays his first gig with the Shadows at Hanley, England's Victoria Hall.

1959: The legendarily bad movie Girls Town, featuring Paul Anka and Mel Torme, premieres in US theaters.

1962: The Beatles release their first single, "Love Me Do" b/w "P.S. I Love You," in the UK. That night, it is played on Radio Luxembourg, owned by EMI, representing the first time a Beatles song is ever heard on the airwaves.

1966: The Jimi Hendrix Experience forms in London.

1975: The three original Wailers -- Bob Marley, Peter Tosh, and Bunny Wailer -- perform together for the last time at Stevie Wonder's benefit concert, the Wonder Dream Concert, in Kingston, Jamaica.

1999: After breaking up "permanently" in 1983, the Who reform with an announcement by singer Roger Daltrey that the trio will re-form for a Las Vegas concert.

2000: The book The Beatles Anthology, some twenty years in the making, is published in the US. Price: $60.

2006: Jeffrey Borer, owner of company that sold Michael Jackson his private Gulfstream jet, is sentenced to six months in prison for ordering employee Arvel Jett Reeves to install two videocameras in it in order to catch Jackson saying something for which he could be blackmailed.

2007: A federal jury finds a Minnesota woman guilty of online music file sharing through the public service KaZaa, fining her $220,000.

Releases

1961: The Marcels, "Heartaches"

1975: Harry Chapin, "Cat's In The Cradle"

1999: Paul McCartney, Run Devil Run

Recording

1939: Ted Weems, "I Wonder Who’s Kissing Her Now"

1961: Neil Sedaka, "Happy Birthday Sweet Sixteen"

1968: The Beatles, "Savoy Truffle," "Martha My Dear"

Charts

1959: Paul Evans' "Seven Little Girls (Sitting in the Back Seat)" enters the charts

1959: Bobby Darin's "Mack The Knife" hits #1

1974: The Beach Boys' LP Endless Summer hits #1

1974: Olivia Newton-John's "I Honestly Love You" hits #1

Certifications

1965: Henry Mancini's soundtrack LP The Pink Panther is certified gold

1976: Hall and Oates' LP Abandoned Luncheonette is certified gold

1979: The Who's LP soundtrack LP The Kids Are Alright is certified platinum

Where Were you on this Day in Music History: October 4th!

A Day in Music History        

October 4th...

Janis Joplin

January 19, 1943 - October 4, 1970 (aged 27)

Births

1929: Leroy Van Dyke

1937: Perkle Lee Moses (The El Dorados)

1942: Helen Reddy

1944: Marlena Davis (The Orlons)

1947: Jim Fielder (Buffalo Springfield, Mothers of Invention, Blood, Sweat and Tears) 

1963: Lena Zavaroni

Deaths

1970: Janis Joplin

1991: J. Frank Wilson

1996: Jerry Rivers (Hank Williams Sr.)

1999: Art Farmer

2004: Michael Gibbins (Badfinger)

2004: Bruce Palmer (The Buffalo Springfield)

Events

1957: Elvis Presley comes in second as England's most popular vocalist in the annual New Musical Express (NME) music poll, coming in just behind... Pat Boone.

1961: Bob Dylan debuts at Carnegie Hall, playing for a grand total of 53 fans.

1961: Popular "recording" group Alvin and the Chipmunks get their own TV show when The Alvin Show debuts on CBS.

1963: A 17-year-old Eric Clapton, late of the Roosters and Casey Jones and the Engineers, joins the Yardbirds for tonight's gig at the Crawdaddy Club in Richmond, England, replacing original guitarist Anthony "Top" Topham.

1964: Dusty Springfield interviews the Beatles on this, their first appearance on England's ITV television program Ready Steady Go!

1968: Cream begins their announced farewell tour with a performance at Alameda County Coliseum in Oakland, CA.

1974: Thin Lizzy debut their new twin-guitar attack with new additions Scott Gorham and Brian Robertson at tonight's concert in Wales.

1978: Country singer Tammy Wynette is allegedly kidnapped at a Nashville shopping center by an unknown man in a ski mask, beaten, and forced at gunpoint to drive roughly 90 miles. Doubt still exists as to whether this incident took place, due to a puzzling lack of physical evidence.

1980: For their work on the recent Fleetwood Mac single "Tusk," the University of Southern California Country marching band is presented with a platinum version of the album of the same name by three members of the rock band.

1980: On stage during a concert in Pittburgh, PA, Carly Simon collapses from "nervous exhaustion."

1988: Determined to finally clean his system of the alcohol and drugs he's been abusing for years, Ringo Starr, along with wife Barbara Bach, flies to Tucson, AZ to enter the Sierra Tucson Rehabilitation Clinic. He will stay six weeks.

1994: Singer Glenn Frey's stomach surgery causes the Eagles to postpone their much-anticipated reunion tour, puckishly titled Hell Freezes Over.

1996: The major motion picture That Thing You Do!, which deals with a fictional 1964 band attempting to break big, and starring Tom Hanks and Liv Tyler, opens in US theaters.

1999: Jimi Hendrix's half-sister Janie announces her plans to exhume the body of her famous brother and move it to a mausoleum where curious onlookers can view it for a price. The public outcry forces her to shelve the idea.

Releases

1943: Louis Jordan and His Tympany Five, "Is You Is Or Is You Ain’t My Baby?"

1974: John Lennon, Walls and Bridges

Recording

1939: Ted Weems, "That Old Gang Of Mine"

1968: The Beatles, "Martha My Dear," "Honey Pie"

Charts

1969: Creedence Clearwater Revival's LP Green River hits #1

1975: Pink Floyd's LP Wish You Were Here hits #1

Certifications

1966: Bobby Hebb's "Sunny" is certified gold