Category: Flashbacks

FLASHBACK POP MUSIC HISTORY: AUGUST 15

From the MCRFB music calendar:

Events on this date: AUGUST 15

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

1956: “Colonel” Tom Parker, actually a dutch immigrant who merely played at being a Southern “aristocrat,” became “special adviser” to Elvis Presley, effectively taking over management duties from Bob Neal, who knew managing the King was about to become a full-time job.

Charles Hardin Holley, better known as Buddy Holly, marries Maria Elena Santiago in Lubbock, Texas on this day. (Click on image for larger view).

1958: Buddy Holly marries Maria Elena Santiago, a former receptionist at his music publishing company, at a private ceremony held at Holly’s boyhood home in Lubbock, Texas.

1964: After the massive success of the Beatles first film, A Hard Day’s Night by United Artists, Warner Bros. sign up the Dave Clark Five to a film project entitled Catch Us If You Can (which was released in the United States as Having A Wild Weekend).

1965: At 8 PM EST, the Beatles take the stage at Shea Stadium in New York City, marking the very first time a rock band would headline a stadium concert and a major promotion victory for Sid Bernstein, who had arranged the concert after his gamble of booking the then-unknown British band at Carnegie Hall had paid off. Tickets for the show, sold merely by word-of-mouth created by kids who asked Bernstein about the next Beatles show while he strolled through Central Park, sold out in just three weeks, beating the stadium’s old seating record with 56,000 seats sold. Two thousand professionals were pressed into service for security. The concert, filmed for the BBC and the NBC Television Network, also featured openers Brenda Holloway, The King Curtis Band, and Bernstein’s new obsession, The Young Rascals.

An actual Woodstock billboard poster, August 1969. (Click on image for larger view).

1969: Promising “three days of peace, love, and music,” The Woodstock Music and Art Fair begins on Max Yasgur’s sixty-acre farm in Bethel, New York (nearby Woodstock being the original location). Featuring two dozen of the country’s hottest bands, the festival draws over 450,000 hippies to the tiny town, causing unimaginable traffic and logistic problems, but nevertheless impressing the ordinary citizens. Three deaths, two births, four miscarriages, and a wedding are all reported prior as Jimi Hendrix ends the festivities with his legendary rendition of the US national anthem. Also appearing were (in part) Joe Cocker, Crosby, Stills and Nash, Santana, The Who, Creedence Clearwater Revival, Grateful Dead, Janis Joplin, The Band, Canned Heat, Joan Baez, Melanie, Ten Years After, Sly and the Family Stone, Johnny Winter, The Jefferson Airplane, Ravi Skankar, Country Joe and the Fish, Blood, Sweat and Tears, and Arlo Guthrie. Among those who elected not to attend were Tommy James and The Shondells, Led Zeppelin, The Beatles, Bob Dylan, The Byrds, Jethro Tull, and the Moody Blues.

1973: Baltimore, Maryland declares today “Cass Elliot Day” in honor of the native singer for the Mamas and The Papas.

Actual Dave Clark Five “Having A Wild Weekend” theater lobby placard from 1965. (Click on image for larger view).

1980: George Harrison’s acclaimed autobiography I Me Mine — the first book by any Beatle — hits the bookshelves all over the UK and the United States.

1980: John Lennon enters the Record Plant Studios in New York to record his “comeback” album, Double Fantasy. 

1996: A New York women’s shelter refuses to take money raised by a recent benefit concert when they learn that one of the performers was James Brown, more often than not, accused of emotional and physical abuse towards women.

2007: The Osmonds reunite for the first time in over two decades to perform their 50th anniversary concert for PBS Television.

 

Deaths: Thomas Wayne; 1971. Norman Petty; 1984. Jackie Edwards; 1992.

Releases: NONE for this date.

Recording: 1966: “If I Were A Carpenter,” Bobby Darin. 1968: “Rocky Raccoon,” The Beatles. 1969: “Golden Slumbers,” “Carry That Weight,” “The End,” “Something,” “Here Comes The Sun,” The Beatles.

Charts: 1953: “No Other Love,” Perry Como; hits No. 1 on the charts. 1960: “It’s Now Or Never,” Elvis Presley; hits No. 1 on the charts. 1964: “Everybody Loves Somebody Sometime,” Dean Martin; hits No. 1 on the charts. 1970: “Looking Out My Back Door,” Creedence Clearwater Revival; enters the charts.

Certifications: 1969: ‘Three Dog Night,” self-titled LP; certified gold by the RIAA.

 

 

 

 

 

 

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

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FLASHBACK POP MUSIC HISTORY: AUGUST 14

From the MCRFB music calendar:

Events on this date: August 14

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

1956: Washington DC deejay Bob Rickman forms the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Elvis Presley after reading too many articles that made Presley out to be a hick and / or a threat to teen society.

Vernon and son Elvis, shown here, grieving the loss of Gladys Presley on August 14, 1958.

1958: At approximately 3:00 a.m, Gladys Presley, mother of Elvis, succumbs at age 46 from a heart attack brought on by hepatitis. His father, Vernon, calls Elvis immediately and he rushes to her bedside, wailing loudly and praying over her lifeless body. Elvis refuses an autopsy. Gladys’ body is transported to Graceland and will lie in state there for two days, with her son simply starring at her, until his father, Vernon, insisted that she be buried.

1962: With producer George Martin unhappy with his drumming (and, some say, the group was unhappy with his teen-idol looks), Pete Best is officially let go from the Beatles. Manager Brian Epstein tells him about three days later, however, after one more performance at the Cavern Club, giving him no real reason for the sacking and cutting off all contact from the other members of the group. (Lennon went on to admit to the group’s “cowardly” handling of the event in a later interview). All sights were on Ringo Starr instead, then-drummer for a Liverpool band named Rory Storm and the Hurricanes, who was then asked  if he would like to join the group. Starr accepted.

1966: The Catholic Herald of London runs an editorial describing John Lennon’s recent remarks the Beatles were “bigger that Jesus” as “arrogant,” while admitting the controversy associated with the quote was a generally accurate statement. However, the Vatican paper of record, L ‘Osservatore Romano, accepts Lennon’s public apology he had made a few days earlier.

1970: After he was found crawling along a motel hallway in La Jolla, California, incoherent and “combative,” Stephen Stills of Crosby, Stills and Nash is arrested for possession of cocaine and barbiturates.

(Click on image for larger view).

1971: Diana Ross becomes the proud mother of her first child, Rhonda Suzanne Silberstein; Ross soon marries her manager, Robert Ellis Silberstein, a few days later to mask the fact that the baby is actually the child of Motown’s current married founder, Berry Gordy.

1981: Four years after his untimely death, a Memphis judge rules that the Elvis Presley estate is no longer financially ensconced to his manager, “Colonel” Tom Parker.

1985: Acting on the advice of his good friend Paul McCartney to invest his Thriller money in music publishing, Michael Jackson makes a secret winning-bid of $47 million for the rights to over 250 Lennon-McCartney Beatles songs owned by ATV Publishing. When he finds out about the transaction, McCartney is livid, saying “I think it’s dodgy to do things like that. To be someone’s friend and then buy the rug they’re standing on.”

Paul McCartney and Michael Jackson seen here, as friends, before the 1985 friendship fall-out.

 

1995: The Grateful Dead meet and decide to break up after the recent tragedy of founder/leader Jerry Garcia’s death.

1999: Former teen idol Leif Garrett pleads guilty to drug possession in Los Angeles and is ordered into rehab upon the advice of his attorney.

 

 

Deaths: Johnny Burnett; 1964. Charles Fizer (The Olympics); 1965. Roy Buchanan; 1988. Tony Williams; 1992.

Releases: “Hang On Sloopy,” The McCoys; 1965. “Maggie May,” Rod Stewart; 1971. “So It Goes,” Nick Lowe; 1976. “Rock ‘N Me,” Steve Miller Band; 1976.

Recordings: “I’m A Loser,” “Mr. Moonlight,” The Beatles; 1964. “Yer Blues,” The Beatles; 1968. “Indian Sunset,” “Rotten Peaches,” “Madman Across The Water,” Elton John; 1971.

Charts: 1961: “Right Or Wrong,” Wanda Jackson; enters the charts. 1965: “I Got You Babe,” Sonny and Cher; hits No. 1 on the charts. 1975: “Devil Woman,” Cliff Richard; enters the charts.

Certifications: 1970: “The Wonder Of You,” Elvis Presley; certified gold by the RIAA. 1974: “(You’re) Having My Baby,” Paul Anka; certified gold by the RIAA.

 

 

 

 

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

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