From the MCRFB music calendar:
Events on this date: APRIL 10
1953: Eddie Fisher is discharged from the U.S. Army, having sold seven million records during his stint in military service.
1956: Leo Fender patents the successor to his popular “Telecaster” model of electric guitar, the new model is named the “Stratocaster” and it becomes a very popular model for guitarists taking up the newest Fender brand.
1956: While performing at the Municipal Auditorium in Birmingham, Alabama, Nat King Cole is assaulted by five segregationists and tackled on stage, although local police quickly arrest the perpetrators, who had originally planned to kidnap the singer. Cole bravely performs a second show later that night.
1957: Ricky Nelson, then all of sixteen, performs his recently-recorded version of Fats Domino “I’m Walking” — done to impress a date — on his family’s show The Adventures Of Ozzie And Harriet on ABC-TV. Nelson’s cover record sells a half-million copies in the next week alone.
1961: Del Shannon makes a guest appearance on Dick Clark’s American Bandstand on ABC-TV, singing his recent breakthrough-hit “Runaway.”
1965: Freddie and the Dreamers hits No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 with their single, “I’m Telling You Now.”
1970: Paul McCartney makes the Beatles secret-breakup public by issuing a press release to announce that he has left the group, done in a form of a fake interview: “Q: Is your break with the Beatles temporary or permanent, due to personal reasons or musical ones? PAUL: Personal differences, business differences, musical differences, but most of all because i have a better time with my family. Temporary or permanent? I don’t really know.” John Lennon is furious, especially since the breakup, already agreed upon by the group, was announced just one week prior to the British release of McCartney’s first solo album. When a reporter track down Lennon for his thoughts, he replies, “Paul hasn’t left. I sacked him.”
1970: Keith Emerson of the Nice, Greg Lake of King Crimson, and Carl Palmer of Atomic Rooster join forces to form Emerson, Lake and Palmer.
1970: At one of the band’s last concerts, in Boston, Doors front-man Jim Morrison asks the audience if they’d like to see something of his “that rhymes with ‘sock,'” and then, more bluntly, screaming “would you like to see my genitals?” The power at the stadium is switched off, and keyboardist Ray Manzarek pulls the singer off the stage. Morrison already is facing similar charges stemming from a recent gig the band held in Miami.
1976: Peter Frampton’s LP Frampton Comes Alive reaches No. 1 on the Billboard LP Chart.
1978: Aretha Franklin marries her second husband, actor Glynn Turman, in New York City. The Four Tops sings Stevie Wonders’ “Isn’t She Lovely” for the couple at the ceremony.
1999: The all-star tribute concert Here, There And Everywhere: A Concert For Linda is held at London’s Royal Albert Hall, where Paul McCartney, George Michael, Chrissie Hynde, Elvis Costello and Sinead O’Connor raise money for animal charities while remembering Paul’s wife Linda, who has recently succumbed to breast cancer.
2002: South Carolina Governor James Hodges makes it official by declaring James Brown the state’s “Godfather Of Soul.”
Deaths: Chuck Willis, 1958; Stuart Sutcliffe, 1962; Nate Nelson (The Flamingoes), 1984; Noel Fox (Oak Ridge Boys), 2003; Little Eva; 2003.
And that just a few of the events which took place in pop music history, on this day…. 
