From the MCRFB calendar:
Events on this date: MARCH 16
1959: The first American record artists package tour is announced for the United Kingdom. The ’59 UK tour will feature Bobby Darin, Duane Eddy, Conway Twitty, Dale Hawkins, and the Poni Tails.
1964: The final nail in legendary DJ Alan Freed’s career is pounded in when Freed is indicted for tax evasion. The IRS evasion charges were brought about because of findings from the “payola scandal” investigations from 1959. By then unemployed, penniless and broke, he dies in 1965.
1968: On this day, Otis Redding hits the No. 1 Billboard spot for his soul hit, “Sittin’ On The Dock Of The Bay.”
1970: On this day, the Beatles release their album Let It Be. Also on this day, Tammi Terrell dies during brain surgery. It was her eighth and her final surgery for an undisclosed brain disorder in the past eighteen months.
1971: At tonight’s Grammy Awards ceremony in Los Angeles, the Beatles take Best Original Score for their Let It Be tracks, while Simon and Garfunkel swept the stage with six Grammies for their song and album Bridge Over Troubled Waters. The six Grammy Awards for the duo fell under these categories: Record Of The Year, Album Of The Year, Song Of The Year, as well as Best Arrangement, Engineering, and Best Contemporary Song.
1974: Elvis Presley returns to Memphis to play his first gig there since 1961. Presley was booked for a one performance show at the Midsouth Coliseum.
1979: Paul McCartney’s concert film Wings Over America gets it first television airing on CBS-TV.
1999: The RIAA gives their first Diamond Award Certification to the Eagles’ Greatest Hits 1971 – 1975 album, honoring 10,000,000 LP copies sold.
2005: Billy Joel enters rehab for the second time, ostensibly for “gastrointestinal distress” but in reality to cure him for alcoholism.
And that’s just a few of the events which took place in pop music history, on this day . . . .
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