Day: April 23, 2014

 

1940: Dale Houston (Dale and Grace)
1947: Glenn Cornick (Jethro Tull)
1949: John Miles
1952: Narada Michael Walden

Deaths

1975: Pete Ham (Badfinger)
1986: Harold Arlen

Events

1943: The Earl “Fatha” Hines Band, featuring then-unknowns Dizzy Gillespie, Charlie Parker, and a vocalist named Sarah Vaughan, begins a series of engagements at the Apollo in Harlem.
1956: High on his recent successes, and at the insistence of Colonel Tom Parker, Elvis Presley begins a disastrous concert stint at the Frontier Hotel in Las Vegas where he opens for comedian Shecky Greene. The middle-aged audience, miles removed from Elvis’ teen fanbase, are completely indifferent to him, and his contract is soon torn up after only one week of a two-week engagement. However, while there, Presley witnesses a band called Freddie Bell and the Bellboys doing a wild rave-up version of Big Mama Thornton’s blues hit “Hound Dog.” He soon works it into the live act.
1960: While staying at Paul McCartney’s aunt’s pub, The Fox and Hound in Caversham, Berkshire, England, Paul and John Lennon perform a set together, calling themselves the Nurk Twins.
1962: The Beatles make their first appearance on record when Tony Sheridan’s version of the standard “My Bonnie,” featuring the Fab Four as backup, is released by Decca. The single is not a hit.
1964: While shooting their first movie, A Hard Day’s Night, the Beatles are filmed running around Thornbury Playing Fields in Isleworth, Middlesex, England — footage which, combined with an earlier sequence shot at London’s Gatwick Airport, becomes the famous “Can’t Buy Me Love” scene. Having been asked to attend a luncheon in honor of manager Brian Epstein, John is not in attendance for this shoot; his place is taken by a body double.
1969: Los Angeles’ famed folk and rock club The Ash Grove, launching pad for everyone from Linda Ronstadt to Canned Heat, catches fire and nearly burns to the ground.
1974: Just before being scheduled to appear as guest host on NBC-TV’s Tonight Show, Mama Cass collapses from exhaustion.
1981: Jerry Lee Lewis and Carl Perkins join Johnny Cash onstage at his show in Stuttgart, West Germany, performing their hits and some mutual country, blues, and gospel favorites. The concert is later released as the LP The Survivors.
1985: Liberace guest-stars as himself on today’s episode of NBC-TV’s long-running soap Another World.
1987: Carole King sues her former label head and mentor, Lou Adler, for $400,000 in royalties and the publishing rights to some of her older recordings from the late Sixties.
1988: During tonight’s Bruce Springsteen concert at the Sports Arena in Los Angeles, CA, Roy Orbison, celebrating his 52nd birthday, is brought onstage so that fans can sing “Happy Birthday” to him.
1995: London’s Sunday Times reports that Peter Hodgson, whose father once lent Paul McCartney his tape recorder, had found a reel-to-reel of the Beatles’ first recordings in his attic. Made in 1959, the tape features sixteen songs, including “Hello Little Girl,” written by Lennon and McCartney but given to another band, and Ray Charles’ “Hallelujah, I Love Her So.”

Releases

none

Recording

1963: Jan and Dean, “Surf City”
1963: Bob Dylan: “Girl OF The North Country,” “Masters Of War,” “Talking World War III Blues,” “Bob Dylan’s Dream”

Charts

1977: Thelma Houston’s “Don’t Leave Me This Way” hits #1

Certifications

1970: Norman Greenbaum’s “Spirit In The Sky” is certified gold