Category: Flashback Pop Music

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….

 

From the MCRFB music calendar:

Events on this date: APRIL 9

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

1962: At tonight’s Academy Awards ceremony in Santa Monica, California, Henry Mancini wins Best Original Song for “Moon River,” his contribution to the film Breakfast At Tifanny’s.

1964: The Vee-Jay record label suffers a fatal blow when it settles out of court with Capitol Records, who charged that nonpayment of royalties invalidated the label’s licensing agreement to sell the Beatles’ first few singles in the United States.

1965: Bruce Johnston replaces Brian Wilson in the touring band of the Beach Boys, Brian having suffered a nervous breakdown while on the band’s recent flight to Houston, Texas.

1966: During a Yardbirds show in Marseilles, France, guitarist Jeff Beck collapses from exhaustion while on stage; eleven years later to the day in 1977, Jimmy Page causes the end of a Led Zeppelin gig in Chicago when he is struck down with stomach cramps.

1966: The Righteous Brothers’ “(You’re My) Soul And Inspiration” hits No. 1 on the charts.

1967: The Doors play before their first large crowd when they appear (along with Jefferson Airplane ) in front of 3,000 at a show in Venice, California.

1973: Queen play their first show since being signed, a “showcase” gig at London’s Marquee Club.

1974: Bruce Springsteen meets rock critic Jon Landau, who would go on to manage the singer and successfully hype him as “rock and roll’s future.

1977: Abba’s “Dancing Queen” hits No. 1 on the Billboard chart.

1979: At tonight’s Academy Awards ceremony in Los Angeles, Best Original Song goes to Donna Summer’s “Last Dance,” from the flop movie Thank God It’s Friday.

1982: Having revived her career in the UK with a hit cover of Al Green’s “Let’s Stay Together,” Tina Turner begins a comeback tour in London.

1989: Rolling Stone bassist Bill Wyman, 52, announces his intention to marry model Mandy Smith, 19, further shocking the public by revealing that he’s been dating Mandy for the past six years — with her mother’s permission. The marriage would last just under two years.

2003: Willie Nelson holds public celebrations of his 70th birthday at the Beacon Theater in New York. Featured performers included, among many others, Ray Charles, Eric Clapton, Paul Simon, ZZ Top, Leon Russell, and country singer Ray Price.

 

 

 

 

And that’s a few of the events which took place in pop music history, on this day…. April 9.

From the MCRFB music calendar:

Events on this date: APRIL 7

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

1956: The first national rock and roll series, Alan Freed’s Rock ‘N’ Roll Dance Party, debuts on the CBS Radio Network.

1956: The Platters make their television debut on the Dorsey Brothers’ Stage Show, broadcast on CBS.

1958: The Capitol label officially abandons issuing 78 rpm records.

1962: Elvis Presley arrives in Hawaii to begin shooting the ocean shots for his latest film, Blue Hawaii. At his hotel, the Kaiser Hawaiian Village, he is mobbed by over a thousand female fans and sprints away from the frenzied mob, losing several pieces of jewelry in the process. (His ring was returned he next day.)

1962: Teen idol Bobby Rydell is ironically cast as Hugo Peabody in the film version hit of the broadway musical Bye Bye Birdie.

1962: Unknown London musicians Mick Jagger and Keith Richards, attending a performance of Alexis Corner’s Blues Festival at the Ealing Jazz Club, meet a young guitarist named Brian Jones.   

1967: San Francisco’s KMPX becomes the first FM station to play “deep cuts” from albums, rather than merely hit singles, a “free-form” non-format that will soon transform “underground” rock radio.

1967: Sonny and Cher’s ill-faded comedy film, a collection of film spoof skits called Good Times, debuts in Chicago.

1970: B.J. Thomas “Raindrops Keep Falling On My Head,” featured in the Paul Newman/Robert Redford film Butch Cassidy And The Sundance Kid, wins Best Original Song at this year’s Academy Awards.

1975: Deep Purple guitarist Ritchie Blackmore leaves the group to form Rainbow. He will be replaced by Tommy Bolin.

1981: Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band play their first concert outside America. The band open their concert tour at the Congress Centre in Hamburg, Germany.

1988: While rehearsing a morbid “hanging” stunt for his upcoming tour, Alice Cooper is nearly killed when the safety rope breaks, leaving him swinging in the air for a few moments. Fortunately, tragedy was averted when a roadie quickly steps in and brings him down.

1990: As famed child AIDS victim Ryan White lays dying in his hospital bed, Elton John, who has taken up his cause, performs “Candle In The Wind” for him during Farm Aid IV in Indianapolis, Indiana.

1994: Percy Sledge pleads guilty to evading taxes on $260,000 on his income and is sentenced to six months in prison (which he is allowed to serve in a “half-way house”).

2006: Bob Dylan is awarded an honorary Pulitzer prize for “profound impact on popular music and American culture, marked by lyrical composition of extraordinary poetic power.”

2008: Olivia Newton-John begins her walk across the entire length of China’s Great Wall in order to raise funds for and awareness of the ongoing battle to help find a cure for breast cancer. The walk will take three weeks and will cover 141 miles.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And that’s just a few of the events which took place in pop music history, on this day…. April 7.

From the MCRFB music calendar:

Events on this date: APRIL 6

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

1956: Having impressed Paramount Studios with his screen test five days earlier, Elvis Presley is signed to a seven-year, three-picture deal worth nearly a half-million dollars.

1960: The Everly Brothers begin their first European tour at London’s New Victoria Theater.

1962: The U.S.S.R’s official newspaper, Pravda, warns Soviet teens of the decadent dangers of the new “twist” dance craze.

1963: Fats Domino leaves Imperial Records and signs with ABC-Paramount Records.

1965: The Beach Boys commence studio session recordings for “California Girls.”

 

1968: Founding member Syd Barrett, already in a mental downward spiral from LSD abuse, leaves Pink Floyd.

1969: Bassist Pete Quaife announces that he’s quitting the Kinks.

1971: The Rolling Stones unveil their new custom record label, Rolling Stones Records, which also features the group’s new logo, the infamous tongue-and-lips “pop art” drawing created by London graphic artist John Pasche.

1971: Carly Simon is introduced to James Taylor backstage after her performance at Los Angeles’ famous Troubadour nightclub. Instantly smitten, they would marry in November of 1972.

1974: Columbia Record’s Billy Joel cracks the Top 40 for the first time with “Piano Man.”

1974: California’s biggest annual rock concert, the California Jam, has its debut in Ontario, CA, featuring stage acts by the Eagles, Earth, Wind, and Fire, Seals and Croft, Black Sabbath, Deep Purple, Emerson, Lake and Palmer, Rare Earth and Black Oak Arkansas performing for a crowd estimated well over 200,000 who attends.

1974: The Rolling Stones premier their concert film Ladies And Gentleman: The Rolling Stones, the first-ever such film with a quadrophonic soundtrack. The event premiers at the Ziegfeld Theater in NYC.

1979: Rod Stewart marries George Hamilton’s ex-wife, Alana Collins, in Beverley Hills, California. They would divorce in 1984.

1984: Guitarist Steve Van Zandt announces that he’s amicably leaving the E Street Band to pursue a solo career. He will return to the E. Street Band in 1995.

1992: To benefit the Natural Law Party, George Harrison plays his first full-length live concert in London. It was his first live performance since the Beatles’s final performance in 1969.

1998: Chubby Checker, Lesley Gore, Fabian, and Dick Clark all guest-star as themselves in tonight’s “Opus One” episode of CBS-TV’s Murphy Brown.

Deaths: Ral Donner, 1984; Tammy Wynette, 1998; Niki Sullivan (band member of the Crickets); 2004.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And that’s just a few of the events which took place in pop music history, on this day….

 

 

 

From the MCRFB music calendar:

Events on this date: APRIL 5

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

1955: Ray Charles marries his second wife, Della Beatrice Howard, in Houston, Texas.

1958: Johnny Mathis’ compilation album Johnny’s Greatest Hits, the first “greatest hits” LP, enters the Billboard charts, where it will stay for almost nine and a half years. Its a record that would only be broken in 1982 by Pink Floyd’s Dark Side Of The Moon LP.

1964: The Beatles film the famous opening scene from their first movie, A Hard Day’s Night, running away from several rabid female fans in pursuit of the Fab Four while at London’s Marylebone train station.

1964: The Searchers make their U.S. television debut, singing “Needles And Pins” and “Ain’t That Just Like Me” on the Ed Sullivan Show on CBS-TV.

1967: Monkees fans march in London in protest of band member Davy Jones’ announced induction into the Army. The teen heartthrob is eventually exempted from duty for being his family’s main provider.

 

1967: Elvis Presley’s 24th movie, Double Trouble, premieres in Hollywood.

1982: Marvin Gaye’s funeral takes place at Forest Lawn cemetery in Los Angeles, drawing some very notable mourners, including Smokey Robinson, Stevie Wonder, Quincy Jones, and Berry Gordy. Gaye had been shot to death three days earlier by his father after he intervened in an argument between his parents.

1987: Buddy Rich’s funeral in Los Angeles also draws some very notable mourners, including Frank Sinatra, Artie Shaw, and Johnny Carson, just to name a few.

1990: After serving months of his sentence for drug possession, resisting arrest, and other related charges, James Brown is put on a work-release program. Brown is moved from his jail to South Carolina’s Lower Savannah Work Center, where he provides counseling for drug addicts. For his services there, James Brown is paid four dollars an hour.

Deaths: Bob “The Bear” Hite, member of Canned Heat; 1981; Cozy Powell, Black Sabbath, Rainbow; 1998; Gene Pitney; 2006.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And that’s just a few of the events which took place in pop music history, on this day….

From the MCRFB music calendar:

Events on this date: APRIL 4

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

1960: RCA Victor decides to release all future singles — starting with Elvis Presley’s “Stuck On You” — in both mono and stereo versions.

1960: At tonight’s Academy Awards, Frank Sinatra’s “High Hopes” (from the comedy A Hole In The Head) wins an Oscar for Best Original Song.

1961: Former teen idol Fabian graduates from Philadelphia’s South Side High.

1964: The Beatles break all American chart records when the latest Billboard chart shows them with the Top Five records in the country simultaneously (#5: “Please Please Me,” #4: “I Want To Hold Your Hand,” #3: “She Loves You,” #2: “Twist And Shout,” #1: “Can’t Buy Me Love”). Even more incredibly, nine other singles are scattered in various other positions around the Hot 100.

1964: A court orders the Trashmen of “Surfin’ Bird” fame to pay royalties to Beechwood Music, holder of the copyright for the Rivington’s 1962 hit, “Papa Oom Mow Mow,” which the Trashmen borrows heavily from.

1967: Paul McCartney advises Beatles PR man Derek Taylor, currently producer of the upcoming Monterey Pop Festival, to consider this new guitar phenomenon he’s seen who goes by the name Jimi Hendrix.

1968: After hearing about the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., in Memphis, riots break out in several major cities across the nation. In Boston, where James Brown is scheduled to perform, city mayor Kevin White asks the singer to call for calm on stage and ask Bostonians not to riot. Meanwhile, at new York City’s New Generation club, Jimi Hendrix, B.B. King, Al Kooper, Buddy Guy, Ted Nugent and Joni Mitchell respond by gathering for an all-night jam in tribute to the slain civil rights leader.

1970: Janis Joplin reunites with Big Brother and the Holding Company in San Francisco for a one-off reunion concert.

1973: A taped Elvis Presley concert entitled: Elvis: Aloha From Hawaii is telecast from NBC television and proves to be a huge success. The total worldwide audience for the show, the first commercial worldwide satellite broadcast, amounts to over a billion viewers who witnessed the telecast event from around the world.

1996: While on parole, Wilson Pickett is arrested for possession of two grams of cocaine at his home in Englewood, New Jersey.

1996: Grateful Dead leader Jerry Garcia’s ashes are scattered in the Ganges river in India by Dead guitarist Bob Weir and Garcia’s widow, Deborah.

2007: Keith Richards of the Rolling Stones retracts a statement he made to British music magazine New Musical Express a few days earlier to the effect he once snorted his dad’s ashes. Richards smugly calls the remark “an April Fool’s joke.”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And that’s just a few of the events which took place in pop music history, on this day….

 

From the MCRFB music calendar:

Events on this date: MARCH 29

 

 

 

 

 

 

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1958: New army recruit Elvis Presley arrives for boot camp at Ft. Hood, Texas. He is stationed there for six months and insists he performs KP and guard duty like any other soldier on the base. With a bank account larger than any other soldier on base, he is able to afford his own housing. His family later arrives and moves into an off-base trailer.

1966: During a concert in Marseilles, France, a rabid Stone fan throws a chair at Mick Jagger. The toss opens a gash on the singer’s forehead requiring eight stitches to close. In a totally separate incident, that same night in Cheshire, England, fans mobbing the Walker Brothers outside their hotel cause concussions in two of the three American band members.

1968: Glen Campbell becomes a television star overnight when the Smothers brothers make him the host of the Summer Replacement Variety Hour on CBS-TV.

1970: Tonight’s Ed Sullivan Show on CBS-TV features performances by Bobby Gentry and Gladys Knight and the Pips, broadcasting live from VA hospitals caring for veterans wounded in service in Vietnam.

1972: Led Zeppelin’s Jimmy Page and Robert Plant travel to Bombay (Mumbai), India, to record versions of the band’s songs “Friends” and “Four Sticks” with the city’s symphony orchestra. Musical and cultural differences make the project from being any success. Page and Plant will return two decades later recording those songs and many more for the MTV special Unledded.

1973: More likely it was destined to happen, Dr. Hook appears on the cover of the Rolling Stone magazine after their recent novelty hit, in which they imagined just doing that while making Top 10 nationally on the record charts. As they had sung in their song, the band members bought five copies of the magazine each and in turn they gave them to their mothers.

1975: This week’s Billboard shows Led Zeppelin with all six of their studio albums currently present on the “Billboard 200” album chart, including a Number One with their latest, Physical Graffiti.

1978: Tina Turner is officially divorced from husband Ike Turner.

1985: Michael Jackson is honored with a wax statue at London’s famous Madame Tussaud’s museum.

1986: The Beatles records are officially licensed for sale in the Soviet Union.

1996: Phil Spector’s former bandmates in the Teddy Bears, Carol Connors and Marshall Lieb, sue the producer to collect royalties they claimed are still owned them from the group’s 1958 smash hit, “To Know Him Is To Love Him.”

2001:A three-hour musical tribute is held at New York City’s Radio Music Hall in honor of the Beach Boy’s guiding genius, Brian Wilson. Beach Boys song-cover performances were rendered that evening by Paul Simon (“Surfer Girl”), Elton John (“God Only Knows”), Billy Joel (“Don’t Worry Baby”), as well as Heart’s Ann and Nancy Wilson, the Go-Gos, Carly Simon, David Crosby, Wilson Philips, Aimee Mann, and songwriter Jimmy Webb. Wilson himself performs “Barbara Ann,” ” Fun, Fun, Fun,” and “Surfin’ U.S.A.”

2006: Tom Jones is knighted by Queen Elizabeth II at Buckingham Palace.

 

And that’s just a few of the events which took place in pop music history, on this day . . . .

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From the MCRFB music calendar:

Events on this date: MARCH 28

 

 

 

 

 

 

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1957: Ral Donner, later to hit with Elvis-sound-alike “The Girl Of My Best Friend,” sees Elvis Presley for the first time performing at the International Amphitheater in Chicago.

1958: Alan Freed’s Big Beat Show tour kicks off the first of its 43 shows at the Brooklyn Paramount Theater with Buddy Holly, Jerry Lee Lewis, Chuck Berry, Danny and the Juniors, Frankie Lymon and the Teenagers, The Chantels, The Diamonds, Screamin’ Jay Hawkins, and more.

1964: Madame Tussuad’s famous Wax Museum in London unveils its four news statues of the Beatles — the first of any rock star to be created and displayed there. The figures will eventually become even more famous when the Beatles decide to use them on the cover of their 1967 album Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band.

1975: Barbra Streisand attends tonight’s Elvis Presley show in Las Vegas and meets him backstage to discuss offering him the lead role in her latest film project, A Star Is Born. Despite the fact that Streisand’s boyfriend, Jon Peters, is slated to produce an direct, Presley is said to be ecstatic about the offer.

1982: After driving erratically due to a toxic shock from drug abuse, David Crosby (formerly of the Byrds) is arrested in San Diego for driving under the influence and possession of Quaaludes, cocaine, drug paraphernalia, and an unlicensed .45 pistol. When cops ask why Crosby carrying the gun, according to the police report he promptly replied, “John Lennon.”

1984: Mick Fleetwood, whose band, Fleetwood Mac, had the biggest-selling album of all time just seven years earlier, files for bankruptcy.

1985: At 10:15 am EST, 6,000 North American radio stations begin playing the all-star benefit single, “We Are The World,” written by Michael Jackson and Lionel Richie and performed by a cast of 45 of music’s biggest stars, including Ray Charles, Bob Dylan, Bruce Springsteen, Stevie Wonder, Paul Simon, Diana Ross, Billy Joel, Tina Turner, Dionne Warwick, Willie Nelson and Daryl Hall. Proceeds from the sale of the single and related items had raised nearly $38,000,000 for the victims of the Ethiopian famine.

1987: After hearing that Arizona Governor Evan Mecham would not honor the new national holiday for Martin Luther King Day, the racially integrated Doobie Brothers, in protest, had removed and re-scheduled their Phoenix show over to Las Vegas instead.

2000: Led Zeppelin’s Jimmy Page wins his libel suit against Ministry, a UK magazine that claimed Page actually watched fellow-band member John Bonham choke to death while trying to revive him with Satanic spells.

2005: On Reverend Jesse Jackson’s internet radio show, Michael Jackson claims his recent child-molestation charges against him personally are a racist conspiracy.

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And that’s just a few of the events which took place in pop music history, on this day….

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From the MCRFB music calendar:

Events on this date: MARCH 27

 

 

 

 

 

 

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1955: In Memphis, Sam Phillips decides to form his own independent record label, known as Sun Records. This was due in part when Ike Turner could not find a record label to record the follow-up to his hit, Jackie Brenston’s “Rocket 88.” Within a matter of days, Sun will release it’s first single, Johnny London’s “Driving Slow” on Sun Records number 175.

1958: CBS Records announces it’s sound lab’s latest invention, stereophonic sound, which when played on a compatible phonograph will send sound through two channels instead of one.

1960:Representative Emanuel Celler (D-NY) introduces two bills designed to halt the practice of “Payola” — that is, deejays receiving cash or gifts to promote certain records. Celler, echoing the sentiments of his era, stated that “the cacophonous music called Rock and Roll” could not possibly have risen up the charts without the help of payola.

1965: P. J. Proby splits his tight pants while on stage in Hereford, England, a standard occurrence for the singer while on stage. On this occasion, as Proby donned more into the same ‘ole splits, the incident resulted in his concert being canceled.

1967: Fats Domino play his first UK gig at London’s Saville Theater, with a billing which included the Bee Gees and Gerry and the Pacemakers.

1972: Grand Funk Railroad fires producer/manager Terry Knight for alleged non-payment of royalties.

1973: Rolling Stone reports that Carlos Santana has become a devotee of Sri Chimnoy, and has therefore changed his name to “Devadip” which means “the lamp of the light of the Supreme” (or whatever).

1973: A routine speeding ticket for Grateful Dead band leader Jerry Garcia in New Jersey becomes more problematic when police search his car and find a significant quantity of LSD. Garcia is released on two-thousand dollar bail.

1979: Eric Clapton finally gets his “Layla” when he marries Pattie Boyd, the ex-wife of best friend George Harrison. Harrison attends the wedding in Tucson, Arizona, as do fellow Beatles Ringo Starr and Paul McCartney. Eric and Pattie would divorce in 1988.

1982: Ronnie Lane, former bassist for the (Small) Faces, is taken to the hospital for further treatment of Multiple Sclerosis. Lane dies from complications of the muscle-degenerating disease in 1997.

2003: The Rolling Stones postpone a planned series of concerts in Hong Kong, after the deadly SARS flu epidemic breaks out there. Ironically, the Stones would later perform a benefit concert at another date to show the city is safe to visit there.

2006: Victor Willis, the “policeman” in the Village People, is arrested in San Francisco for failing to appear at his trial for cocaine and gun possession. After agreeing to enter rehab his sentence is reduced to three years probation.

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And that’s just a few of the events which took place in pop music history, on this day….

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From the MCRFB music calendar:

Events on this date: MARCH 26

 

 

 

 

 

 

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1962: Elvis Presley begins filming his 11th motion picture, titled Girls! Girls! Girls!

1963: Funny Girl, opens on Broadway today, starring Barbra Streisand. It features the hits, “Don’t Rain On My Parade” and the song that would become her signature-song in popularity, “People.”

1964: Tonight on the CBS-TV’s I’ve Got A Secret panel show as guest, is former Beatles drummer Pete Best, whose “secret” is almost guessed immediately. When show-host Gary Moore asks Best why he left the group (Best was fired), he replied, “I thought I’d like to start a group of my own.”

1965: The Walker Brothers make their first UK television appearance, performing on ITV’s Ready Steady Go!

1969: Pat Boone guest-stars as himself on tonight’s Beverly Hillbillies episode, titled, Collard Greens An’ Fatback on the CBS Televison Network.

1970: Just days after winning a Grammy for Best Recording For Children with their album Peter, Paul, And Mommy, Peter, Paul and Mary are scandalously rocked when group leader Peter Yarrow is arrested in Washington D.C., for allegedly “taking immoral liberties” with a minor, a fourteen-year-old girl. He would serve three months and would later be given clemency by President Jimmy Carter.

1975: In London, the rock musical Tommy, based on the Who album bearing the same title name, makes it premier film debut today. Directed by Ken Russell, Who lead-singer Roger Daltry is cast in the title role, and co-starring are American actors Jack Nicholson and Ann Margaret. Guest stars includes Tina Turner and Elton John.

1976: Keith Richards and model-girlfriend Anita Pallenberg becomes the proud parents of a son, Tara. Sadly, he would die ten weeks later of pneumonia.

1976: Riding near the scene of a multi-car pileup in Memphis, Elvis Presley jumps out of his limo, displays his honorary Captain’s police badge given to him by the city, and attempts to help the victims until police and paramedics arrive.

1980: Pink Floyd’s landmark 1973 LP Dark Side Of The Moon surpasses Carole King’s Tapestry as the album with the longest consecutive stay on the Billboard 200 album chart. It would remain on the chart until 1988.

1985: After Stevie Wonder’s Oscar acceptance speech the previous night, at which he dedicated his Best Song Award to Nelson Mandela, South Africa bans all Stevie Wonder records from playing on it’s nation’s airwaves in response (oops).

Deaths: Little Willie John (of “Fever” fame) 1968; Duster Bennett (British blues singer; member John Mayall’s Bluesbreakers) 1976; Jon-Jon Paulos (The Buckinghams) 1980; Jan Berry (of Jan and Dean); 2004.

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And that’s a few of the events which took place in pop music history, on this day….

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