Category: Flashbacks

From the MCRFB music calendar:

Events on this date: MAY 8

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

1954: The BBC bans Johnny Ray’s latest single, “Such A Night,” from airplay due to it’s somewhat suggestive lyrics. It would later become a hit for Elvis Presley.

1961: Teen idol Ricky Nelson turns 21 and, eager to shed his teeny-bop image, changes his professional first name to “Rick,” which he would insist upon being called for the rest of his career.

1963: Chicago R&B great Major Lance records “The Monkey Time.”

1962: Beatles manager Brian Epstein, already discouraged somewhat from the Decca records rejection, runs into engineer Ted Huntley while at the HMV Record Store in London. Huntley suggest sending the bands’s demo to a producer at EMI by the name of George Martin.

1967: During filming of what would become the documentary Don’t Look Back, Bob Dylan gets the idea to make a short film of his single, “Subterranean Homesick Blues,” featuring him standing in an alley next to London’s Savoy Hotel. The film features Dylan with the company of his two friends, Allen Ginsberg and Bob Neuwirth flipping cue cards with the lyrics of the Dylan song on them.

1967: Gerry and the Pacemakers, increasingly out of step with changing rock trends, announce their disbandment.

1969: The Beatles sign a contract making Allen Klein their manager (through his company ABKCO). Paul, pointedly, refuses to show up and sign the agreement, a decision that will eventually lead the group to dissolve as a band.

1972: Following promoter’s Sid Bernstein’s decision to reinvent Radio City Music Hall in New York as a rock venue, Billy Preston becomes the first rock performer to headline at the famous landmark.

1976: John Sabastian’s “Welcome Back” hits No. 1 on the Billboard chart.

1976: On stage during Bob Dylan’s Rolling Thunder Revue in Houston, Willie Nelson joins Dylan for a stirring rendition of the country standard, “Will The Circle Be Unbroken,” dedicated (as is the concert itself) to freeing wrongfully convicted ex-boxer Rubin “Hurricane” Carter from his murder sentence.

1976: BBC’s Radio One fires deejay Johnny Walker after he refuses to promote the teeny-bop group Bay City Rollers’ “Saturday Night” on the station.

1990: Tom Waits wins his $2.5 million lawsuit against snack giant Frito Lay for using a Waits “sound-alike” in a television commercial promoting their product.

1991: 55 year-old Rolling Stones’ bassist Bill Wyman divorces his second wife, 21 year-old model Mandy Smith, after three years of marriage.

1998: The three former Beatles, along with Yoko Ono, win an injunction stopping the re-release of the band’s live 1962 “Star Club” tapes,  recorded in Hamburg at the famous venue.

2006: Apple Computers wins a long, long legal battle over rights to sell music over the internet without violating the trademark of the Beatles’ Apple label.

2006: Former MC5 bassist Michael Davis is badly injured in a motorcycle accident while riding in his hometown in Detroit, Michigan.

 

 

 

 

 

And that’s just a few of the events which took place in pop music history, on this day…. MAY 8

 

From the MCRFB music calendar:

Events on this date: MAY 7

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

1955: Ray Charles breaks through with his first No. 1 R&B hit, “I’ve Got A Woman,” a revamped version from a gospel standard called, “It Must Be Jesus.”

1958: The Champs appear on Dick Clark’s American Bandstand and perform their No. 1 instrumental hit, “Tequila.”

1965: At London’s Twickenham Studios, the Beatles film scene in Help! entitled “The Exciting Adventure of Paul On The Floor,” where a suddenly-shrunken Paul McCartney tries to hide his newly-naked body.

1966: Simon & Garfunkel’s “I Am A Rock” enters the charts.

1966: The Mamas and The Papas “Monday Monday” hits No. 1 on the Billboard chart.

1967: During Moscow’s May Day celebrations, several teens dance the twist in outright violation of the Ministry Of Culture’s orders against Western decadence.

1967: Breaking his self-imposed exile after a motorcycle accident the previous year, Bob Dylan gives his first post-crash interview to the New York Daily News.

1968: Singer-songwriter Reginald Dwight changes his name legally to Elton Hercules John, the first and last names taken from his former bandmates in Bluesology, Elton Dean and Long John Baldry.

1972: Tom Jones’ Special London Bridge Special, featuring the Carpenters and Engelbert Humperdinck and celebrities alike including Kirk Douglas to Charlton Heston, airs on the BBC.

1978: Bob Dylan’s upcoming series of concerts at London’s Wembley Empire sells out all 90,000 tickets in just under eight hours.

1982: Diana Ross is awarded a star on the Hollywood Walk Of Fame at 6712 Hollywood Blvd.

1991, In his hometown of Englewood, NJ, Wilson Pickett is arrested for insisting on driving over the lawn of his neighbor, Donald Aronson, who just happens to be the town’s mayor. After finding a knife and a baseball bat in his vehicle, attempted murder is added to the charges. Pickett is inexplicably let off with a charity concert and a years’ probation.

1991: Rolling Stone bassist Bill Wyman, 54, ends his two-year marriage to Mandy Smith, 21, whom he had begun dating at age 13. Despite in only spending two months total with Wyman during their marriage, she receives a settlement of $6.5 million.

2002: London authorities wrap up their four-month investigation of Who guitarist Pete Townsend, charged with downloading child-pornography in 1999. Townsend, who claimed he was researching a book he was writing about his own childhood sexual abuses, was not jailed but was placed on a national sex offender registry.

Deaths: Ron Wilson (The Surfaris), 1989; Eddie Rabbitt, 1998; Alphonso Howell (The Sensations), 1998; Rudy Maugeri (The Crew Cuts), 2004; Dave Fisher (The Highwaymen), 2004.

 

 

 

 

And that’s just a few of the events which took place in pop music history, on this day…. MAY 7.

 

From the MCRFB music calendar:

Events on this date: MAY 4

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

1956: England’s New Musical Express erroneously reports that ‘Elvin’ Presley will be performing in an upcoming gig at the Palladium in London. Elvis Presley never did Europe.

1957: ABC-TV premiers Alan Freed’s Rock and Roll Revue show, an attempt to replicate the success of their own American Bandstand. The first show features performances by the Clovers, The Del-Vikings, Screamin’ Jay Hawkins, Sal Mineo and Guy Mitchell.

1959: The very first Grammy Awards are held in Los Angeles, with Record Of The Year honors going out to Domenico Modugno’s “Volare (Nel Blu Depinto De Blu)” and Henry Mancini’s The Music Of Peter Gunn soundtrack winning Record Album Of The Year. The Champs’ “Tequila,” for some reason, takes home Best Rhythm and Blues Performance honors.

1964: British musicians Ray Thomas and Mike Pinder form an R&B group, naming themselves the Moody Blues. The group’s name comes as a derivative from Dukes Ellington’s “Mood Indigo.”

1967: The Turtles’ hit “Happy Together” is certified gold by RIAA.

1968: Twiggy, one of England’s first supermodels, catches an 18 year-old singer named Mark Hopkins on the BBC-TV talent show Opportunity Knocks and calls friend Paul McCartney, who eventually signs her to Apple Records and gives her one of his songs, “Those Were The Days,” to record.

1968: Steppenwolf makes its U.S. television debut, performing “Born To Be Wild” on ABC-TV Dick Clark’s American Bandstand.

 

1970: The US National Guard opens fire on Vietnam war protesters at Kent State University in Ohio, killing four unarmed students and wounding eleven more. After seeing photos of the shooting later in the week in LIFE magazine, Neil Young immediately writes the song, “Ohio,” which Crosby, Stills and Nash will record the next day. Twenty-five years later to the day, Peter Paul and Mary play a commemorative concert at the university, performing Dylan’s “Blowin’ In The Wind.”

1977: The Beatles long-anticipated and only live LP, The Beatles At The Hollywood Bowl is released.

1985: The legendary Apollo Theater re-opens in Harlem after a massive  $10,000,000 dollar makeover.

1990: In an interview, David Bowie’s ex-wife, Angie (she was of whom the Stones penned and sang of in their hit), claims for the first time in how she walked in on her ex, and Mick Jagger — caught — having sex with each other.

1992: Baltimore mayor Kurt Schmoke declares today “KISS Day” and presents the band with an honorary key to the city.

2008: Martha Reeves’ home in Detroit is burglarized and $1,000,000 worth of recording equipment is stolen. In just a few hours, the perpetrator is captured while attempting to hock the stolen-merchandise for a bargained steal — $400.00.

 

 

 

 

 

And that’s just a few of the events which took place in pop music history, on this day….

From the MCRFB music calendar:

Events on this date: MAY 3

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

1958: One of the first major rock and roll riots breaks out during Alan Freed’s “Big Beat Spring 1958” show at the Boston Arena, with Boston police threatening to shut the show down because of the overly-crowd dancing and Alan Freed telling the crowd from the stage, “The police doesn’t want you to have fun.” He is arrested for inciting a riot.

1964: Gerry and the Pacemakers make their first US television debut, singing “Don’t Let The Sun Catch You Crying” on CBS’ Ed Sullivan Show.” 

1965: Motown’s Supremes release their new hit, “Back In My Arms Again.”

1967: The Walker Brothers announce their split. Scott Walker would go on to be a highly influential solo artist in the late Sixties.

1968: Having just returned from studying the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi in India, the Beach Boys make him the opening lecture act on their new tour. About half the dates are eventually cancelled.

1971: Grand Funk Railroad holds their sparsely-attended first press conference at the Gotham Hotel in New York City.

1971: Led Zeppelin play their song “Four Sticks” for the first and only time in a concert during a show in Denmark.

1976: Paul Simon, Phoebe Snow, Jimmy Cliff and others perform a benefit concert to raise funds for the financially-strapped New York Public Library.

1976: Paul McCartney opens hid first tour with his new band as the massively successful Wings Over America tour begins in Ft. Worth, Texas.

1978: The movie FM, a flop comedy about a radio station, opens in Los Angeles. However, the title track and the name of their LP, performed by Steely Dan, becomes a huge hit for the band.

1991: Texas Governor Ann Richards officially declares today ZZ Top Day in the Lone Star State.

1991: Andy Williams marries his second wife, Debbie Haas, in New York City.

2006: Bob Dylan’s first hosted radio show airs on XM Satellite Radio, with the folk-rock legend playing his favorite hits by Prince, Wilco, Blur, LL Cool J, and Billy Braggs, among others.

 

 

 

 

And that’s just a few of the events which took place in pop music history, on this day….

From the MCRFB music calendar:

Events on this date: MAY 2

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

1956: In a definite sign of the times, five records — Elvis Presley’s  “Heartbreak Hotel,” Little Richard’s “Long Talll Sally,” Carl Perkin’s “Blue Sued Shoes,” The Platters’s “(You’ve Got) The Magic Touch,” and Frankie Lymon and the Teenagers’ “Why Do Fools Fall In Love” — occupy Billboard’s R&B and Pop Top 10, the first time so many records had “crossed-over” at the same time.

1958: Chuck Berry hits the Chess Records studio to record “Carol.”

1960: Ben E. King, the Drifters second lead-singer, also leaves the group to pursue a solo career with Atco Records.

1960: Ray Peterson records “Tell Laura I Love Her.”

1960: Elvis Presley begins filming on his fifth movie, G.I. Blues.

1964: After 51 weeks at the top, the Beatles finally relinquish the No. 1 album position in the UK — to the Rolling Stones’ self-titled debut LP.

1964: The Rolling Stones enters the charts with their single, “Not Fade Away.”

1964: The Beatles Second Album hits No.1 on the Billboard album charts.

1965: Ed Sullivan breaks a vow he made the year before and books the Rolling Stones back on his long-running CBS-TV variety show — but not before keeping the band in the studio all day, in order to keep from inciting the fans. The Stones perform four songs on the show: “The Last Time,” “Little Red Rooster,” “Everybody Needs Somebody To Love” and the Stones album instrumental “2120 South Michigan Avenue.”

1967: The Beach Boys announce they are scrapping their anticipated Pet Sounds followup album, Smile. After decades of imagined Smile albums, assembled from bootlegs and released recordings, founder and resident genius Brian Wilson finally releases a finished version of the project in 2005.

1968: The Box Tops’ “Cry Like A Baby” is certified gold by RIAA.

1969: The Who debut their much-discussed rock opera Tommy by playing the  finished album for the press at London’s Ronnie’s Jazz Club. Ten years later to the day, they would premiere their new film, Quadrophenia, in New York City.

1969: Elvis Presley finishes filming on his 31st and final motion picture, Change Of Habit.

1972: In New York City, Bruce Springsteen auditions for Columbia Records A&R head John Hammond, who is so impressed he immediately arranges a set that night at the Gaslight Club for his fellow execs.

1975: Apple Records officially ends its life as a record label, though it will be revived as a Beatles-only label in 2004.

2009: Motown’s rarest 45, Frank Wilson’s “Do I Love You (Indeed I Do),” set a world’s record by selling for nearly $40,000 at a London auction house. The unreleased single is one of only two copies known to exist.

2009: Bob Dylan takes a day off from his UK-European tour and, along with 13 other tourists, takes a bus trip to visit John Lennon’s childhood home in Liverpool, newly opened for the public. His presence was not recognized during the entire bus entourage and visit.

Deaths: Benny Benjamin (famed-Motown drummer), 1969; Les Harvey (Stone The Crows); 1972.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And that’s just a few of the events which took place in pop music history, on this day…. MAY 2.