From the MCRFB music calendar:
Events on this date: JUNE 22
1957: Liverpool skiffle group the Quarrymen, later to morph into the Beatles, play their first major gig at a fete by performing on the back of a coal truck. Four years later to the day, the Beatles (with Pete Best on the drums) would have their first formal recording session, performing “My Bonnie,” and other numbers. The sessions, produced by Bert Kaempfert in Hamburg, Germany, also features “Ain’t She Sweet.”
1961: Elvis Presley’s seventh movie, a serious drama called Wild In The Country, opens nationwide in theaters across the country.
1964: Barbra Streisand signs a $200,000 ten-year contract with the CBS Television Network for a series of TV specials.
1968: The Jeff Beck Group makes it U.S. stage debut in New York’s Fillmore East Theater.
1968: Rolling Stone first reports on the existent of an unissued Bob Dylan album recorded with The Band during his extended convalescence at Woodstock, New York in 1967; it would finally see the light of day in 1975 as The Basement Tapes.
1975: Eric Clapton joins the Rollin Stones for a version of “Sympathy For The Devil” during the band’s Madison Square Garden concert in NYC.
1981: John Lennon’s murderer pleads guilty to his crime and is sentenced to 20 years to life in New York’s Attica State Prison. He has since been up for parole five times, and has been denied every time.
1988: Peter Tosh’s murderer, Dennis Lobban, is sentenced to hanging by a court in his native Jamaica. Lobban, who was known to Tosh, and two others had murdered the reggae star in his home the previous year after a failed robbery.
1990: Billy Joel performs a concert in Yankee Stadium, the first rocker ever to do so.
1996: Diana Ross’ brother, Motown songwriter Arthur Ross, is murdered along with his wife by two robbers in his home in Detroit.
Deaths: 1969: Judy Garland. 1990: Kripp Johnson (Del Vikings).
Releases: 1959: “Maybelline,” Chuck Berry. 1963: “Wipeout,” The Surfaris. 1969: ‘Blind Faith,’ LP; Blind Faith.
Recordings: 1967: “How Can I Be Sure,” The Young Rascals.
Charts: 1959: “I’m A Tiger,” Fabian; enters the charts. 1963: “Fingertips (Pt. 1),” Little Stevie Wonder; enters the charts. 1968: “This Guy’s In Love With You,” Herb Alpert hits No. 1 on the charts. 1974: ‘Sundown,’ LP; Gordon Lightfoot hits No. 1 on the album charts.
And that’s just a few of the events which took place in pop music history, on this day…. JUNE 22.
