Month: March 2012

FLASHBACK POP MUSIC HISTORY: MARCH 29

From the MCRFB music calendar:

Events on this date: MARCH 29

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

1958: New army recruit Elvis Presley arrives for boot camp at Ft. Hood, Texas. He is stationed there for six months and insists he performs KP and guard duty like any other soldier on the base. With a bank account larger than any other soldier on base, he is able to afford his own housing. His family later arrives and moves into an off-base trailer.

1966: During a concert in Marseilles, France, a rabid Stone fan throws a chair at Mick Jagger. The toss opens a gash on the singer’s forehead requiring eight stitches to close. In a totally separate incident, that same night in Cheshire, England, fans mobbing the Walker Brothers outside their hotel cause concussions in two of the three American band members.

Glen Campbell in 1967

1968: Glen Campbell becomes a television star overnight when the Smothers brothers make him the host of the Summer Replacement Variety Hour on CBS-TV.

1970: Tonight’s Ed Sullivan Show on CBS-TV features performances by Bobby Gentry and Gladys Knight and the Pips, broadcasting live from VA hospitals caring for veterans wounded in service in Vietnam.

1972: Led Zeppelin’s Jimmy Page and Robert Plant travel to Bombay (Mumbai), India, to record versions of the band’s songs “Friends” and “Four Sticks” with the city’s symphony orchestra. Musical and cultural differences make the project from being any success. Page and Plant will return two decades later recording those songs and many more for the MTV special Unledded.

Dr. Hook on the cover of the Rolling Stone in 1973 (click on image for larger view).

1973: More likely it was destined to happen, Dr. Hook appears on the cover of the Rolling Stone magazine after their recent novelty hit, in which they imagined just doing that while making Top 10 nationally on the record charts. As they had sung in their song, the band members bought five copies of the magazine each and in turn they gave them to their mothers.

1975: This week’s Billboard shows Led Zeppelin with all six of their studio albums currently present on the “Billboard 200” album chart, including a Number One with their latest, Physical Graffiti.

1978: Tina Turner is officially divorced from husband Ike Turner.

1985: Michael Jackson is honored with a wax statue at London’s famous Madame Tussaud’s museum.

1986: The Beatles records are officially licensed for sale in the Soviet Union.

1996: Phil Spector’s former bandmates in the Teddy Bears, Carol Connors and Marshall Lieb, sue the producer to collect royalties they claimed are still owned them from the group’s 1958 smash hit, “To Know Him Is To Love Him.”

2001:A three-hour musical tribute is held at New York City’s Radio Music Hall in honor of the Beach Boy’s guiding genius, Brian Wilson. Beach Boys song-cover performances were rendered that evening by Paul Simon (“Surfer Girl”), Elton John (“God Only Knows”), Billy Joel (“Don’t Worry Baby”), as well as Heart’s Ann and Nancy Wilson, the Go-Gos, Carly Simon, David Crosby, Wilson Philips, Aimee Mann, and songwriter Jimmy Webb. Wilson himself performs “Barbara Ann,” ” Fun, Fun, Fun,” and “Surfin’ U.S.A.”

2006: Tom Jones is knighted by Queen Elizabeth II at Buckingham Palace.

 

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

 

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AIRCHECK OF THE WEEK * HONEY RADIO AM ’56

WCSX‘s Richard D. Haase with WCSX‘s Jon Ray

RICHARD D. * WHND * NOVEMBER 15, 1994

A MCRFB Note: Richard D. Haase just retired last year and Jon Ray works as Asst. Program Director at WCSX.

WHND “Honey Radio” 1986 (On your PC? Click on chart 2x for largest detailed view)

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FLASHBACK POP MUSIC HISTORY: MARCH 28

From the MCRFB music calendar:

Events on this date: MARCH 28

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

1957: Ral Donner, later to hit with Elvis-sound-alike “The Girl Of My Best Friend,” sees Elvis Presley for the first time performing at the International Amphitheater in Chicago.

Alan Freed’s ‘Big Beat Show’ at the Brooklyn Paramount in 1958.

1958: Alan Freed’s Big Beat Show tour kicks off the first of its 43 shows at the Brooklyn Paramount Theater with Buddy Holly, Jerry Lee Lewis, Chuck Berry, Danny and the Juniors, Frankie Lymon and the Teenagers, The Chantels, The Diamonds, Screamin’ Jay Hawkins, and more.

1964: Madame Tussuad’s famous Wax Museum in London unveils its four news statues of the Beatles — the first of any rock star to be created and displayed there. The figures will eventually become even more famous when the Beatles decide to use them on the cover of their 1967 album Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band.

1975: Barbra Streisand attends tonight’s Elvis Presley show in Las Vegas and meets him backstage to discuss offering him the lead role in her latest film project, A Star Is Born. Despite the fact that Streisand’s boyfriend, Jon Peters, is slated to produce an direct, Presley is said to be ecstatic about the offer.

David Crosby makes the cover of People magazine, on April 27, 1987. (Click on image for larger view).

1982: After driving erratically due to a toxic shock from drug abuse, David Crosby (formerly of the Byrds) is arrested in San Diego for driving under the influence and possession of Quaaludes, cocaine, drug paraphernalia, and an unlicensed .45 pistol. When cops ask why Crosby carrying the gun, according to the police report he promptly replied, “John Lennon.”

1984: Mick Fleetwood, whose band, Fleetwood Mac, had the biggest-selling album of all time just seven years earlier, files for bankruptcy.

1985: At 10:15 am EST, 6,000 North American radio stations begin playing the all-star benefit single, “We Are The World,” written by Michael Jackson and Lionel Richie and performed by a cast of 45 of music’s biggest stars, including Ray Charles, Bob Dylan, Bruce Springsteen, Stevie Wonder, Paul Simon, Diana Ross, Billy Joel, Tina Turner, Dionne Warwick, Willie Nelson and Daryl Hall. Proceeds from the sale of the single and related items had raised nearly $38,000,000 for the victims of the Ethiopian famine.

The Doobie Brothers “Minute By Minute” 45 rpm record picture sleeve.

1987: After hearing that Arizona Governor Evan Mecham would not honor the new national holiday for Martin Luther King Day, the racially integrated Doobie Brothers, in protest, had removed and re-scheduled their Phoenix show over to Las Vegas instead.

2000: Led Zeppelin’s Jimmy Page wins his libel suit against Ministry, a UK magazine that claimed Page actually watched fellow-band member John Bonham choke to death while trying to revive him with Satanic spells.

2005: On Reverend Jesse Jackson’s internet radio show, Michael Jackson claims his recent child-molestation charges against him personally are a racist conspiracy.

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

 

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FLASHBACK POP MUSIC HISTORY: MARCH 27

From the MCRFB music calendar:

Events on this date: MARCH 27

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

1955: In Memphis, Sam Phillips decides to form his own independent record label, known as Sun Records. This was due in part when Ike Turner could not find a record label to record the follow-up to his hit, Jackie Brenston’s “Rocket 88.” Within a matter of days, Sun will release it’s first single, Johnny London’s “Driving Slow” on Sun Records number 175.

CBS Records’ sound lab invented a new recording process sound by converting a single audio source into two-channel dimensional stereophonic separation in 1958.

1958: CBS Records announces it’s sound lab’s latest invention, stereophonic sound, which when played on a compatible phonograph will send sound through two channels instead of one.

1960:Representative Emanuel Celler (D-NY) introduces two bills designed to halt the practice of “Payola” — that is, deejays receiving cash or gifts to promote certain records. Celler, echoing the sentiments of his era, stated that “the cacophonous music called Rock and Roll” could not possibly have risen up the charts without the help of payola.

1965: P. J. Proby splits his tight pants while on stage in Hereford, England, a standard occurrence for the singer while on stage. On this occasion, as Proby donned more into the same ‘ole splits, the incident resulted in his concert being canceled.

1967: Fats Domino play his first UK gig at London’s Saville Theater, with a billing which included the Bee Gees and Gerry and the Pacemakers.

Grand Funk manager Terry Knight in 1970.

1972: Grand Funk Railroad fires producer/manager Terry Knight for alleged non-payment of royalties.

1973: Rolling Stone reports that Carlos Santana has become a devotee of Sri Chimnoy, and has therefore changed his name to “Devadip” which means “the lamp of the light of the Supreme” (or whatever).

1973: A routine speeding ticket for Grateful Dead band leader Jerry Garcia in New Jersey becomes more problematic when police search his car and find a significant quantity of LSD. Garcia is released on two-thousand dollar bail.

1979: Eric Clapton finally gets his “Layla” when he marries Pattie Boyd, the ex-wife of best friend George Harrison. Harrison attends the wedding in Tucson, Arizona, as do fellow Beatles Ringo Starr and Paul McCartney. Eric and Pattie would divorce in 1988.

Ronnie Lane with the Small Faces circa 1967.

1982: Ronnie Lane, former bassist for the (Small) Faces, is taken to the hospital for further treatment of Multiple Sclerosis. Lane dies from complications of the muscle-degenerating disease in 1997.

2003: The Rolling Stones postpone a planned series of concerts in Hong Kong, after the deadly SARS flu epidemic breaks out there. Ironically, the Stones would later perform a benefit concert at another date to show the city is safe to visit there.

2006: Victor Willis, the “policeman” in the Village People, is arrested in San Francisco for failing to appear at his trial for cocaine and gun possession. After agreeing to enter rehab his sentence is reduced to three years probation.

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

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