Category: Flashback Pop Music

From the MCRFB music calendar:

Events on this date: MARCH 25

 

 

 

 

 

 

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1958: reporting to Ft. Chafee, Arkansas by bus, Elvis Presley has his famous hair shorn off by an Army barber. For the occasion, the media was there with cameras in hand.

1961: Elvis Presley holds an afternoon press conference and, in the evening, performs the USS Arizona concert at Pearl Harbor’s Bloch Arena. The Presley performance raised $62,000 for the memorial dedicated to the 1,177 servicemen killed when the ship went down on December 7, 1941. It was to be his last concert appearance for eight years.

1965: After Eric Clapton quit the band, London session guitarist Jeff Beck joins the Yardbirds after being recommended by the group’s first choice, another session man named Jimmy Page.

1967: The Who plays their first American show at New York’s RKO Radio Theater.

1967: Cream arrive in the U.S. to begin their first North American tour.

1968: Roy Orbison marries his second wife, Barbara Wellhonen, in Nashville, Tennessee. They would remain married until Orbison’s death twenty-years later.

1969: A just-married John Lennon and Yoko Ono decide to use the press to promote an end to the Vietnam war, and all wars in general, during their honeymoon. The duo stay, fully clothed,  in their bed at the Amsterdam Hilton for the next four days, talking about peace to a cadre of largely skeptical reporters from around the world.

1971: New York radio station WNBC becomes the first to ban Brewer’s and Shipley’s hit “One Toke Over The Line” due to alleged marijuana references.

1976: Jackson Browne’s wife, Phyllis Major, commits suicide with sleeping pills just months after their marriage.

1983: Motown tapes an all-star concert at the Pasadena Civic Auditorium in Pasadena, California in order to celebrate Motown’s 25th year anniversary. Michael Jackson steals the show with his solo performance of his new single, Billie Jean, complete with moonwalk. That performance event alone catapults Jackson from superstar to megastar status worldwide overnight.

1985: Stevie Wonder wins his first Oscar for his theme to the film The Women In Red, entitled, “I Just Called To Say I Love You.”  Sixteen-years later to the day, Bob Dylan will win his first Oscar ever for his “Wonder Boys” song, “Things Have Changed.”

1989: The recording studio at Chuck Berry’s ranch at Wentzville, Missouri is destroyed by a fire, taking with it 13 of Berry’s unreleased songs.

Deaths: On this date, Bill Kerney (The Inkspots fame) 1978; Joe Schermie (Three Dog Night fame) 2001; Buck Owens (Country singer) 2008; Dan Seals (England Dan and John Ford Coley fame) 2009.

 

 

 

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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 24

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

1956: Elvis Presley visits friend and fellow Sun label mate Carl Perkins in a Dover, Delaware hospital, where he is recovering from his near-fatal crash.

1958: At 6:35 AM, Elvis Presley reports to the offices of Memphis’ local Draft Board 86, accompanied by his parents and longtime friend Lamar Fike, then is bused with twelve other new recruits to Kennedy Veterans Memorial Hospital.

There, Elvis is inducted into the U.S. Army, a Private with serial number 53 310  761. Dozens of photographers and reporters attend the event. He will serve two years, and his monthly payment for military service will be $78.00 per month.

1962: Mick Jagger and Keith Richards first perform together in Ealing, England on stage for the first time, with their first band, as Little Boy Blue and the Blue Boys.

1965: While playing in Odense, Denmark, Rolling Stone bassist Bill Wyman is instantly knocked unconscious by a poorly grounded microphone stand while on stage.

1966: The first major U.S. bootleg law is passed in New York State, a bill that makes the processing of unlicensed recordings a misdemeanor. Twelve-years later to the day, Great Britain grants all their record companies the right to confiscate unauthorized recording duplicates, officially by law as illegal property of copyrighted materials.

1973: An overly-zealous male fan climbs onstage during a Lou Reed concert in Buffalo, New York, and plants a bite on one of Reed’s buttocks. The attendee-culprit who performed this unusual behavior was, not surprisingly, tossed out of the event immediately by the band’s security unit. Reed later remarked that, “America seems to breed real animals.”

2001: Macon, Georgia’s Hwy 19 is renamed Duane Allman Boulevard. The renaming of the stretch of highway running through Macon is in remembrance of the famed band member guitarist who was killed in a motorcycle accident there some thirty-years earlier.

2002: After a record fifteen nominations, Randy Newman wins his first Oscar for The Monster, Inc. composition “If I Didn’t Have You.” The number was awarded for Best Song.

Deaths: Harold Melvin (of the Blue Notes) 1997; Rod Price (Foghat) 2005; Henson Cargill (Country singer, 1968 “Skip A Rope” fame) 2007; Uriel Jones (Drummer, Funk Brothers) 2009.

 

 

 

 

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  4

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

From the MCRFB music calendar:

Events on this date: MARCH 22

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

1955: New York’s Coral Records hires   deejay Alan Freed for A&R duties. The recording company also gives Freed his own contract to record under his name.

1956: Sammy Davis, Jr., becomes an instant celebrity when he stars in the Broadway play Mr. Wonderful.

1958: The eight-year old Hank Williams, Jr. makes his first stage appearance in Swainsboro, Georgia.

1962: 19-year-old Barbara Streisand becomes an instant celebrity when she stars in the Broadway play I Can Get It For You Wholesale.

1963: EMI releases the Beatles album Please Please Me in the United Kingdom.

1967: Elvis Presley begins filming his 25th movie, Clambake, in Los Angeles.

1967: The Who makes it first U.S. stage debut, performing at the Paramount in New York City.

1971: The Allman Brothers are arrested at a truck stop in Jackson, Alabama, and are charge with possession of marijuana and heroin.

1975: Barry Manilow makes his first U.S. television appearance today. Manilow performs “Mandy” and “It’s A Miracle” on Dick Clark’s American Bandstand on ABC-TV.

1976: While campaigning for the presidency, Jimmy Carter tells the National Association of Records Merchandisers that he listened to Bob Dylan, Grateful Dead, and Led Zeppelin while he was Governor of Georgia.

1977: ABC-TV airs the John Denver special Thank God I’m A Country Boy.

1978: The Rutles: All You Need Is Cash, a Beatles parody special that grew out of sketches on the ex-Monty Python member Eric Idol’s show Rutland Weekend Television, get it’s first U.S. airing on ABC-TV.

1979: Chaka Kahn gives birth to her second child, Damien Milton Patrick Holland.

1994: Ted Nugent makes a PSA warning kids of the dangers of abusing inhalants.

1997: Paul McCartney’s original birth certificate is sold to a private Beatles collector for $84, 146.00.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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  2

From the MCRFB music calendar:

Events on this date: MARCH 21

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

1952: At the Cleveland arena, influential (notably R&B) deejay Alan Freed holds what is considered today the first true “rock and roll concert,” as his Moondog Coronation Ball features Billy Ward and the Dominoes, Tiny Grimes, and Paul Williams and the Hucklebuckers. With ten-thousand attendees (and twice that many outside waiting to get in), the Cleveland police shut down the concert down prematurely for potential fire code violations, causing a near riot.

1956: After performing in Norfolk, Virginia, while en route to New York to appear on the Perry Como Show, Carl Perkins is badly injured in a Dover, Delaware car crash that also kills his manager and his brother Jay Perkins. The crash derails Perkin’s career, almost for good, as he is forced to spend nine months in a hospital nursing a fractured neck, broken collarbone, as he suffered a severe concussion as well. In the meantime, while Perkins was on his extended recovery mend, Elvis Presley takes on Perkin’s own hit, “Blue Suede Shoes” in 1956. The Presley version becomes more popular on the charts than the Carl Perkins Sun records release, who incidentally, wrote the song.

1961: The Beatles, still featuring Pete Best on the drums, play their first evening gig at Liverpool’s Cavern Club, opened for a band called the Bluegenes (later renamed the Swinging Blue Jeans of “Hippy Hippy Shake” fame).

1964: Judy Collins is catapulted into stardom after a momentous appearance at New York’s Carnegie Hall.

1967: John Lennon takes his first major LSD trip and ‘freaks out’ while recording backing vocals on the track “It’s Getting Better.” Producer George Martin, not realizing the effects of the drug, takes Lennon for air on the roof of Abbey Road Studios. Paul and George, upon learning where John was, rush up to get him down. The group resumes more work on a piano track for “Lovely Rita” instead.

1973: After a large throng of teenage girls cause a riot as teen-heartthrob David Cassidy performs on the BBC show Top Of The Pops, the program bans all teen idols from performing on future shows.

1976: David Bowie and Iggy Pop are arrested in New York and are charged with marijuana possession, of which charges are later dropped.

1984: John Lennon’s widow, Yoko Ono, dedicates a section of New York City’s Central Park as a place of meditation called Strawberry Fields. Every December 9, thousands of fans converge on the spot to remember John Lennon, who was murdered by a deranged fan on that day in 1980.

1990: Tony Orlando is awarded a star on the Hollywood Walk Of Fame at 6385 Hollywood Boulevard.

1994: Bruce Springsteen wins an Oscar for penning the song “Streets Of Philadelphia” for the Tom Hanks movie as titled, Philadelphia.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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 20

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

1959: Philadelphia’s Dick Clark introduces Philadelphia’s own Bobby Rydell on American Bandstand. By then a singing protege after having first been discovered by Clark, the sensational Phillie teen-idol makes his first appearance on the ABC-TV national teen-dance show.

1961: Elvis Presley begins filming Blue Hawaii while on location there. It is Presley’s ninth movie thus far.

1964: The Beatles make their first appearance on the British television variety show Ready Steady Go! After singing three numbers on the show, “Can’t Buy Me Love,” ” It Won’t Be Long,” and “You Can’t Do That.” The band’s debut appearance on the show retains the highest ratings ever for the UK television program.

1965: The No. 1 song in the Britain Isles on this day is “The Last Time” by the Rolling Stones.

1965:  Motown’s very first British tour begins at Finsbury Park Astoria, in London. The UK entourage features many of the top Motown recording acts, such as the Supremes, Little Stevie Wonder, Marvin Gaye, Martha and the Vandellas, and the Miracles.

1968: Eric Clapton is arrested in Los Angeles along with three members of the Buffalo Springfield, namely Neil Young, Jim Messina, and  Richie Furray. All four were charged with “being in a place where it is suspected marijuana was being used.” Clapton is later found innocent, while the Buffalo Springfield band members, their names disclosed, are all penalized with a small fine.

1969: John Lennon marries Yoko Ono at the Rock of Gibraltor, Spain, a parcel of land still owned by the English. Later, in the Beatles song, “The Ballad Of John And Yoko,” Lennon describes the location as “Gibraltor, near Spain,” setting off an international furor at the time, as England and Spain were currently at odds over ownership of the area.

1976: Alice Cooper marries his first and only wife, Sheryl Goddard, a-19-year-old dancer who was on his Welcome To My Nightmare Tour.

1977: T-Rex plays what is to be their last concert before the untimely death of lead singer Marc Bolan in an automobile accident, a gig at a club named The Locarno, situated in Portsmouth, England.

1989: After 37 years on the air, Dick Clark announces he will discontinue his creation for television, ABC-TV’s American Bandstand. The show continues with another host, but didn’t last too long after Clark had exited.

1991:  Eric Clapton’s son Conor, four years of age, dies after falling from the 53rd story window from his mother’s apartment in New York City. Clapton was staying at a hotel at the time not far away, having taken his son to a circus the night before. Clapton later writes his hit song “Tears In Heaven” as a way to help overcome his personal grief over his son’s tragic death.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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 19

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

1957: Although he wouldn’t finalize the deal in six more days, Elvis Presley puts down a deposit to secure the 14-acre estate with a two-story colonial at 3734 Highway 51 South, Memphis, Tennessee, later know as Graceland.

1958: As Tom and Jerry, Simon and Garfunkel release their third single, a ditty named, “Our Song.”

1964: British Prime Minister Harold Wilson, who would later be satirized in the band’s song “Taxman,” presents the Beatles for being “Show Business Personalities Of 1963” At the Variety Club of Great Britain Annual Show Business Award.

1965: Britain’s Tailor and Cutter runs an article by tie makers asking the Rolling Stones to start wearing ties with their suits, a fashion which had gone out of style among the youth. Mick Jagger responds, diplomatically, that ties would only give screaming female fans something else they can grab unto in a mob-crowd.

1966: The Walker Brothers’ Gary Lewis undergoes a fake abduction by college students as a charity stunt.

1966: Lesley Gore guest stars as herself on the final “Byline — Jeffrey Stone” episode of ABC-TV’s The Donna Reed Show.

1968: Donovan goes to India to study under the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi. Dean Martin’s Reprise’ album Houston is certified gold.

1970: David Bowie marries his first wife, model Angela Barnett, in Kent, England, who became the eventual subject of the Rolling Stone’s 1974 titled hit, “Angie.”

1974: Jefferson Airplane reforms with their core of original members, although this time they renamed the group as Jefferson Starship.

1980: Elvis Presley’s autopsy is entered into proceedings held by the Tennessee Board of Medical Examiners against Dr. George Nichopoulos, better known to his clients — including Elvis — as “Dr. Nick.” The doctor will eventually be found guilty of over-prescribing the drugs that led to Presley’s death and will have his license revoked, even though he repeatedly took measures to help cure Elvis of his addiction through prescribed detoxification.

1988: Michael Jackson begins construction on his 2,800-acre ranch and private amusement park in Santa Barbara, California. Jackson will name it “Neverland,” namely after a fantasy location he had taken while reading his favorite book , Peter Pan, and according to the book, it is a place where children will never grow up.

2004: After she had an allergic reaction to prescribed antibiotics, Aretha Franklin is admitted to Detroit’s Sinai-Grace Hospital.

 

 

 

 

 

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 18

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

1958: Jerry Lee Lewis becomes the first musician to appear on American Bandstand actually singing and not lip-synching through his performance. Singing “Great Balls Of Fire,” “Whole Lotta Shakin’ Goin On,” and “Breathless” live, he also becomes the first guest to perform three songs on the D.C. program.

1959: EMI announces its intentions to halt productions of 78 rpm records.

1965: In a scandal that further marred their reputations as a “bad boys” band,  the Rolling Stones are arrested for publicly urinating on a side wall of a gas station after a concert in Essex, England.

1967: The Beatles “Penny Lane” spends its sole week at No. 1 in the U.S.

1970: Brook Benton is certified gold by the RIAA for his (over) one million-selling hit, “A Rainy Night In Georgia.”

1972: Ringo Starr, in his first directing role, is behind the camera filming tonight’s T-Rex concert in Wembley, for his upcoming Marc Boland documentary Born To Boogie.

1973: At Earl’s Court in London, Pink Floyd perform their just-released album On The Dark Side Of The Moon in its entirety for the first time.

1975: The Who is immortalized on stage by the band’s movie version of Tommy. The play premiered in New York City in “Quintophonic Sound.”

1978: Barry Gibb of the Bee Gees occupies the top three spots on the Billboard charts as a writer and producer: Samantha Sang’s “Emotion” at No. 3, younger brother’s Andy Gibb’s “(Love Is) Thicker Than Water” No. 2, and the Bee Gees’ own “Night Fever” is at the top spot at No. 1 for the first of eight solid weeks on the charts.

1982: Returning from a Philadelphia ’76ers basketball game, Teddy Pendergrass is permanently paralyzed from the waist down when the brakes on his Roll Royce fails, causing the vehicle to swerve unto oncoming traffic and crash into a tree. Miraculously, Pendergrass returns to the stage two years later in 1984.

1992: Donna Summers is awarded a star on the Hollywood Walk Of Fame at 7000 Hollywood Blvd.

1994: Darryl Jones replaces longtime bassist Bill Wyman in the Rolling Stones.

2002: In New York, Issac Hayes, Brenda Lee, and Gene Pitney (among others) are inducted into the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And that’s just a few of the events which took place in pop music history, on this day . . . .  M  A  R  C  H   1  8

From the MCRFB music calendar:

Events on this date: MARCH 17

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

1956: Carl Perkins made his television debut on the ABC-TV variety show Ozark Jamboree.

1957: Elvis Presley purchases Memphis’ Graceland mansion, featuring 23 rooms and 10,000 square feet of space on 13.8 acres, for $102,500.

1962: According to today’s edition of Billboard magazine, Ray Charles starts his own artist-owned record label, Tangerine Records.

1968: The Bee Gees make their first U. S. television appearance, performing “To Love Somebody” and “Words” on CBS-TV’s The Ed Sullivan Show.

1975: At the height of her popularity, Cher graces the cover of Time magazine on this date.

1976: Boxer Rubin “Hurricane” Carter murder case is re-opened, largely due to the attention brought to it by Bob Dylan’s recent hit song, “Hurricane.”

1990: That’s What Friends Are For, an AIDS benefit concert at the Radio City Music Hall that also serves to celebrate 15 years of the Arista record label, features perfomances by the label’s own Barry Manilow, Dionne Warwick, Daryl Hall and John Oates, and Whitney Houston.

2004: Ray Davis of the Kinks is awarded a Commander of the British Empire medal from Queen Elizabeth II at Buckingham Palace.

2006: Beset by legal and financial woes, Michael Jackson closes his Neverland Ranch in California.

2008: Eight years to the day their romance became public, model and activist Heather Mills is awarded $48.6 million in her divorce settlement from Paul McCartney.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And that’s just a few of the events which took place in pop music history, on this day . . . .  M  A  R  C  H   1  7

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 . . . . 

M  A  R  C  H   1  6