Day: March 26, 2012

FLASHBACK POP MUSIC HISTORY: MARCH 26

From the MCRFB music calendar:

Events on this date: MARCH 26

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

1962: Elvis Presley begins filming his 11th motion picture, titled Girls! Girls! Girls!

Barbra Streisand’s Columbia Records 1964 hit, “People.”

1963: Funny Girl, opens on Broadway today, starring Barbra Streisand. It features the hits, “Don’t Rain On My Parade” and the song that would become her signature-song in popularity, “People.”

1964: Tonight on the CBS-TV’s I’ve Got A Secret panel show as guest, is former Beatles drummer Pete Best, whose “secret” is almost guessed immediately. When show-host Gary Moore asks Best why he left the group (Best was fired), he replied, “I thought I’d like to start a group of my own.”

1965: The Walker Brothers make their first UK television appearance, performing on ITV’s Ready Steady Go!

1969: Pat Boone guest-stars as himself on tonight’s Beverly Hillbillies episode, titled, Collard Greens An’ Fatback on the CBS Televison Network.

Peter, Paul and Mary. Formed in 1961, they disbanded in 1970. Mary Travers died of cancer at 72, in 2009.

1970: Just days after winning a Grammy for Best Recording For Children with their album Peter, Paul, And Mommy, Peter, Paul and Mary are scandalously rocked when group leader Peter Yarrow is arrested in Washington D.C., for allegedly “taking immoral liberties” with a minor, a fourteen-year-old girl. He would serve three months and would later be given clemency by President Jimmy Carter.

1975: In London, the rock musical Tommy, based on the Who album bearing the same title name, makes it premier film debut today. Directed by Ken Russell, Who lead-singer Roger Daltry is cast in the title role, and co-starring are American actors Jack Nicholson and Ann Margaret. Guest stars includes Tina Turner and Elton John.

1976: Keith Richards and model-girlfriend Anita Pallenberg becomes the proud parents of a son, Tara. Sadly, he would die ten weeks later of pneumonia.

1976: Riding near the scene of a multi-car pileup in Memphis, Elvis Presley jumps out of his limo, displays his honorary Captain’s police badge given to him by the city, and attempts to help the victims until police and paramedics arrive.

1980: Pink Floyd’s landmark 1973 LP Dark Side Of The Moon surpasses Carole King’s Tapestry as the album with the longest consecutive stay on the Billboard 200 album chart. It would remain on the chart until 1988.

1985: After Stevie Wonder’s Oscar acceptance speech the previous night, at which he dedicated his Best Song Award to Nelson Mandela, South Africa bans all Stevie Wonder records from playing on it’s nation’s airwaves in response (oops).

Deaths: Little Willie John (of “Fever” fame) 1968; Duster Bennett (British blues singer; member John Mayall’s Bluesbreakers) 1976; Jon-Jon Paulos (The Buckinghams) 1980; Jan Berry (of Jan and Dean); 2004.

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

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FOUR TOPS’ ’67 CLUB SCENE . . . SEPTEMBER 23, 1967

From the MCRFB news archive: 1967

Room At The Top, Motown’s Own Four Tops Customizing Song Selections For Nightclub Acts

 

 

 

 

Hollywood — The Four Tops, who closed their first booking at the Cocoanut Grove with a live LP recording, have learned to custom-tailor their repertoire to suit the level of the room audience. Four years ago the Detroit quartet was still hustling around the “chitlin’ circuit.”

The Four Tops.

Today, the male vocalists are a top Motown act and a new find for such rooms as the Grove and New York’s Copa, Washington D.C.’s Shoreham, Cherry Hill, New Jersey’s Latin Casino, and Hollywood, Miami’s own Diplomat — all forthcoming bookings.

On recordings, the quartet sings the pop love songs of Eddie Holland-Brian Holland and Lamont Dozier. On stage, they dip into the Broadway and film repertoire for adult-oriented tunes which fit the Tops’ pleasant harmonies.

“We try to keep the composer’s beauty in the material,” explains Renaldo Benson, who along with Levi Stubbs, Jr., Lawrence Payton, and Abdul (Duke) Fakir formed the group thirteen-years ago.

During their Grove engagement the quartet included an Academy Award medley as its customizing salute to the film-oriented audience. Wade Marcus, the group’s musical director, along with Payton produced the live LP, for which Motown’s chief engineer was flown here for the special event.

The Four Tops circa 1966.

Benson, the “philosopher” in the group, feels that as a result of the Grove appearance, the group sought a wider musical scope in selections of other songs they were to perform. “For the last four years we’ve been playing rock concerts where sounds are really not that important. Here, we have to truly work to stimulate the audience.” Benson says they never “jive the audience” because they’ve been through the scuffling bit and appreciate the opportunity to work in the big time.

The Tops’ troupe numbers nine (including rhythm section) which involves a healthy weekly pay, but they are earning substantially more than their “chitlin’ circuits” salaries of from $1,000 to $1,500.

Two months ago the artists worked the Whisky A Go-Go on the Sunset Strip, where their repertoire was more tuned to their Motown singles hits. Their booking into the downtown prestige room here in Los Angeles was so soon after the Whiskey exposure, that it was a surprising bit of scheduling for the Tops.

 

When they play for colleges, the students ask for the single hits. This fall the quartet is planning a new act for the Ivy circuit, which also considerably pays better than the “chitlin'” clubs they frequented just five-years earlier.

The Tops now plan to begin producing records, which is a characteristic of the Motown operation where executives are artists, and where writers are the artists as well. END

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(Information and news source: Billboard; September 23, 1967)

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