From the MCRFB music calendar:
Events on this date: MARCH 23
1955: The juvenile-delinquent flick The Blackboard Jungle premiers in U.S. theaters. While it is a solid and even daring drama, its remembered mainly for prominently featuring Bill Haley and his Comets’ “Rock Around The Clock.” The single, which had been released to little fanfare a year earlier, rockets back into the charts and straight to No. 1, officially kicking off the birth of the rock and roll era.
1955: Elvis Presley, along with band mates Scotty Moore and Bill Black, audition for Arthur Godfrey’s Talents Scouts in New York with a surprisingly tepid version of “Milkcow Blues Boogie.” They are subsequently rejected.
1956: At a Frankie Lyman and the Teenagers concert in Hartford, Connecticut, eleven young hooligans are arrested for allegedly inciting a riot.
1960: Songwriter Carole King and husband and writing partner Gerry Goffin are proud parents to their first child, a daughter Carole named Louis.
1963: Dion, formerly of the Belmonts, take wed to his own “Runaround Sue,” and her name is, in actuality, Sue Butterfield.
1969: In response to the Doors infamous recent concert there ( at which Jim Morrison allegedly exposed himself before the audience), a “Rally For Decency” is held in Miami featuring Jackie Gleason, The Letterman, Kate Smith, and Anita Bryant and they were assured by its promoters that the crowd of 30,000 will contain “no longhairs and weird dressers.”
1970: Although the Beatles had abandoned the tracks originally cut for the Let It Be album, their business manager, Allen Klein, invites Phil Spector to remix the recordings. Spector’s tampering with the original recordings further alienates Paul McCartney from the band, who instead is working on his first solo album in the studio next room over.
1977: Elvis Presley begins what will be his last tour with a concert at Arizona State University.
1985: John Fogerty engineers an amazing comeback when his LP Centerfield goes No. 1, fifteen-years after after the breakup of his band, Creedence Clearwater Revival.
1985: Billy Joel marries supermodel Christie Brinkley on a boat in New York Harbor, near the Statue of Liberty. The marriage will last 10 years.
And that’s just a few of the events which took place in pop music history, on this day . . . . M A R C H 2 3
