From the MCRFB music calendar:
Events on this date: APRIL 22
1959: The Alan Freed “Rock and Roll” movie, Go, Johnny, Go! premier in New York City. The movie features Chuck Berry, Jackie Wilson, Ritchie Valens, Eddie Cochran, The Cadillacs, and The Flamingos.
1962: Jerry Lee Lewis loses his first son, Steve Allen (named after the TV host and good friend), in a tragic drowning accident at the age of three.
1964: The President of England’s National Federation of Hairdressers makes headlines when he offers a free haircut to the next rock group who reach Number One.
1966: A young Bruce Springsteen gets a boost when his band The Castiles wins a battle of the bands at a roller rink in Matawan, New Jersey. The first prize? Opening for the Crystals and the Ad Libs at next week’s show.
1966: The Troggs “Wild Thing” was released today.
1967: Elvis Presley’s 23rd motion picture Easy Come, Easy Go premiers in Hollywood.
1968: Herb Alpert sings a Burt Bacharach composition, “This Guy’s In Love With You,” to his wife on the Tijuana Brass television special, Beat Of The Brass. It would spark a national demand for the song, which results in the song being released a few weeks later. It will become a million-seller later in the year.
1969: Herb Alpert’s A&M Records signs The Carpenters.
1969: On the roof of Apple headquarters at 3 Sevile Road in London, John Winston Lennon changes his name to John Ono Lennon.
1969: Today is Tommy Day. The Who performed their new rock opera Tommy for the first time on stage in its entirety at a concert in Dolton, England; five years later to the day, the group begins filming the movie version, and, on the same date in 1993, the Broadway play based on the album opens in New York.
1974: Rebone’s “Come And Get Your Love” is certified gold.
1976: Johnnie Taylor goes platinum with his No. 1 disco-hit, “Disco Lady.”
1978: On tonight’s Saturday Night Live, John Belushi and Dan Aykroyd team up to debut two new characters called “The Blues Brothers,” who performs a cover version of Sam and Dave’s “Soul Man.”
1979: The Rolling Stones play two concerts in Oshawa, Ontario, for the Canadian Institute for the Blind, as a result of a court-ordered community service for guitarist Keith Richards, who was busted two years earlier for heroin possession.
1981: Eric Clapton is involved in a car crash near Seattle, Washington, and is hospitalized with bruised ribs and lacerations, just two days after he was released from a Minneapolis, Minnesota hospital after treatment was administered for an ulcer disorder.
And that’s just a few of the events which took place in pop music history, on this day….