FLASHBACK POP MUSIC HISTORY: APRIL 4
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…. 
EXCITEMENT IN R&B RADIO: WCHB 1440… JULY 2, 1966
From the MCRFB NEWS archive: 1966
WCHB Adds Own Excitement To Rhythm and Blues Format
DETROIT — R&B music is the most exciting music in the world now, believes WCHB program director Bill Curtis. That, plus a “lot of hard work,” is the foundation on which the R&B station has built its success. Billboard’s latest Radio Response Ratings survey of this market, the fifth largest in the nation, showed the station as the major influence on sales of R&B records. Fifty per cent of the record dealers, distributors, one-stop operators, and local and national record executives voted in favor of the station over its competition in broadcasting in the Detroit area.
Although R&B music has grown increasingly so popular that Hot 100 stations are playing more and more of it, Curtis wasn’t worried. “We play more of it and we try to play it before they do. But it’s the most exciting music in the world right now, and nothing will ever take it’s place.”
The station has been responsible for giving many new R&B records that important initial exposure; in fact, the exposure has been so important that the power of the station has forced rock ‘n’ roll outlets in the city to play the records because of the sale created. An example is “Sunny” by Bobby Hebb, said Curtis. This was the flip side of a record, but during a listening session Curtis was impressed with the B side over the A side, “A Satisfied Mind.” “Just a fluke that I listened to it,” he said. “I don’t go around turning over a cat’s record.” But “Sunny,” which the station went on to play, went to No. 1 at local Hot 100 format stations.
Another record the R&B station broke in the market was “Open The Door To Your Heart” by Darryl Banks on the Detroit-based Revilot Records and Curtis predicted it would be “a big one.”
“I get a kick out of exposing a new recording product, helping it become a hit. At least you know you’re doing something worthwhile. Also, you get an indication of the power of your station and how much you can influence your listeners.” END
___
(Information and news source: Billboard Magazine; July 2, 1966)
DETROIT, L.A., FOR THE RECORD(S)… JULY 2, 1966
From the MCRFB news archives:
Detroit and L.A. Record Sales Are ‘Happening Places’
By CLAUDE HALL
DETROIT — Detroit and Los Angeles are currently the best place in the nation in which to break a record. Both cities in the past six months, according to a special Billboard survey, have had eight records start there with a sales breakout, and have spread across the country to finally reach Billboard’s Top 100 Chart. In the case of Detroit, this include’s “Cool Jerk” by the Capitols on Karen Records, No. 7 this week, and “Oh, How Happy” by the Shades Of Blue on Impact Records which went to No. 12 and is No. 14 this week. Impact is a Detroit record label.
The eight-Detroit chart makers came from a total of 16 breakouts; the eight Los Angeles winners came from only 14. Chicago, New York and Detroit were the cities with the largest number of total breakouts — 16 each. But, of the New York and the Chicago breakouts, only six went on to reach the chart.
San Francisco, on the other hand, had seven records reach the chart from 15 original breakouts. San Francisco had the largest number of total breakouts — 20 — but five of these records happened first in other markets. Tying with New York and Chicago in number of breakout records that went on to reach the chart were Dallas, Miami and Pittsburgh.
In a similar survey last year, New York took all honors, not only having the most original breakouts — 17 — but having the most that reached the chart — 19. San Francisco had been second with 18 breakout that reached the chart. That survey encompassed nine months.
During the past six months, Atlanta had five record breakouts that reached the chart, Houston four, Milwaukee and St. Louis three each.
In all, there were 182 different records which were listed as breakout singles in 22 different markets between Billboard’s January 1 and June 25 issues. Of these, 81 had made the Top 100 Chart as of the current July 2 issue, another 26 record singles made the Bubbling Under category. The percent of of breakout single records making the chart was 45.1.
These figures do not include the big name artists like the Beatles, whose records generally break nation-wide immediately after release. Of the breakout singles, the two biggest hits to date have been “Elusive Butterfly” by Bob Lind on World Pacific Records, which started in Miami, and “Time Won’t Let Me” by the Outsiders on Capitol Records which started in Cleveland. Both records went to No. 5 on the chart. However, other records still moving up the chart like “Little Girl” (a San Francisco happening) by the Syndicate Of Sound on Bell Records, “Ain’t Too Proud To Beg” (Miami breakout) by the Temptations on Gordy Records, “Dirty Water” (a Miami breakout) by the Standells, on Tower Records, “Along Comes Mary” by the Association on Valiant Records (a Los Angeles breakout) still stand an excellent chance of doing as well on the charts. All four of these former regional breakouts are in Billboard’s top 20 with a star, indicating heavy current record disk sales.
Without doubt, the crown for taking the longest to happen goes to “Sweet Pea” by Tommy Roe on ABC Records, appearing this week on Billboard’s Hot 100 chart at 37 with a star. The record was first listed as a breakout in Atlanta in the February 19 issue. More than two months later, in the April 30 issue, it was a breakout in Miami. The May 21 issue showed it as a sales breakout in both the Dallas-Ft.Worth area and in Memphis as well. On June 4, it was a breakout in both Milwaukee and the Minneapolis-St. Paul area. All this before “Sweet Pea” finally began to happen big.
Some records, in spite of being sales breakouts in other markets, never really make it. “Second Hand Man” by the Back Porch Majority on Epic Records had sales breakouts in Houston, Dallas-Ft. Worth and Chicago, but only went as high as No. 135 in the Bubbling Under category. “Don’t Stop Now” by Eddie Holman on Parkway Records broke out in sales in Los Angeles, New York and Pittsburgh, but failed to make it elsewhere in other major markets. “Mr. Moon” by the Coachmen on Bear Records broke in Minneapolis-St. Paul, Milwaukee and San Francisco but only went high as No. 114 in the Bubbling Under category. “I Dig You Baby” by Lorraine Ellison on Mercury Records had the same fate.
Some markets didn’t fare so well in ratio of success with breakouts. Although a total of 15 different records had sales breakouts in Baltimore — 13 of which happened there first — only two went on to make the 100 chart, one an Al Martino record which went as high as No. 30. END.
(Information and news source; Billboard Magazine; July 2, 1966).
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