“To live is to be musical, starting with the blood dancing in your veins. Everything living has a rhythm. Do you feel your music?”
~Michael Jackson
The late Luther Vandross (‘Power Of Love’) was born in 1951
Craig Frost (keyboards with Grand Funk – ‘We’re An American Band’ and Bob Seger’s Silver Bullet Band – ‘Shakedown’) is 69
Johnny Tillotson (‘Poetry In Motion’) is 78
Rock Factoid: Although the Four Freshmen sang the theme song in the pilot episode of television’s Gidget, it was Tillotson who sang it during the show’s first and only season.
1949 – Facing a crisis of mounting debts, Benjamin Spector committed suicide. Nine years later, borrowing the epitaph To Know Him Was To Love Him from his father’s tombstone as a lyric, his teenage son Phil made a million-selling single that was to launch him as the most successful — and tormented — pop producer in the world.
1959 – Thirteen-year-old Dolly Parton released her first single (‘Puppy Love’), a song she had co-written with her uncle when she was 11.
1963 – Ricky Nelson married his first wife, Kris Harmon, daughter of college football legend Tom Harmon and brother of actor Mark Harmon, in Los Angeles. The couple divorced in 1982.
1964 – Elvis Presley’s Viva Las Vegas premiered.
1968 – The Rolling Stones completed the recording of ‘Jumpin’ Jack Flash’.
1967 – The Beatles completed the recording of George Harrison’s ‘Only A Northern Song’.The song was recorded during the sessions for ‘Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band’ album but the Beatles chose not to include it. Instead, it was one of the four new songs that the band provided for the 1968 animated film ‘Yellow Submarine’.
Rock Factoid: The song’s lyrics indicate Harrison’s personal denunciation of the Beatles’ music publishing business. By this time, he had grown weary of being a Beatle and the title was a slam at the company which published their songs. John Lennon and Paul McCartney were major shareholders in Northern Songs, each owning 15 per cent of the public company’s shares, while Ringo Starr and Harrison, as contracted songwriters, owned 0.8 per cent each. This arrangement ensured that, in addition to the company retaining the copyright of all its published songs, Lennon and McCartney profited more from Harrison’s compositions than he did.
“The song was copyrighted Northern Songs Ltd, which I don’t own, so, ‘It doesn’t really matter what chords I play, what words I say, or time of day it is, as it’s only a Northern song.'”
~George Harrison
1968 – Apple Music ran the famous “This Man Has Talent” ads in Britain’s New Musical Express. The ad sought demo tapes from unknown artists. Most were never given a listen and piled up in Apple’s offices.
1969 – Benny Benjamin (drummer on virtually all of the early Motown hits) died of a stroke.
1970 – Creedence Clearwater Revival released ‘Run Through The Jungle’ / ‘Up Around The Bend’. The single climbed to #4 on the Billboard Hot 100.
Paul McCartney’s solo debut album (‘McCartney’) was released in the U.S.—1970
1970 – Elvis Presley released ‘The Wonder Of You’ / ‘Mama Liked The Roses’.
1976 – The Rolling Stones released the ‘Black And Blue’ album.
Rock Factoid: Although the album was the first to feature new Stone Ronnie Wood, the former Faces guitarist only played guitar on three songs. Former Canned Heat guitarist Harvey Mandel was used for the hit ‘Hot Stuff’ and session guitarist Wayne Perkins took the lead on ‘Fool To Cry’.
1981 – John Phillips of The Mamas & The Papas pleaded guilty to drug trafficking. All but 30 days of his seven-year sentence were suspended.
1985 – Wham! became the first major recording act to release music in the People’s Republic of China. Selections from two of the group’s albums were packaged and sold on cassettes.
1991 – Steve Marriott (lead guitarist/lead singer with The Small Faces – ‘Itchycoo Park’ and later formed Humble Pie) died from smoke inhalation in a house fire in Essex.
Rock Factoid: After leaving the Small Faces, Marriott’s venture with Peter Frampton in Humble Pie started out strong but the after their record label folded in 1970, Marriott became disillusioned with the music industry, turned his back on big record companies and returned to his music roots playing pubs and clubs around London.
By 1990 Marriott was playing an average 200 gigs a year (insisting on being paid for every gig in cash as the Inland Revenue were pursuing him for back taxes) when Frampton asked Marriott to reform Humble Pie to produce a one-off album and a reunion tour. The payment would be enough to allow Marriott to take things easier. He agreed but soon changed his mind and flew home from the U.S.
During the flight, Marriott drank heavily and was in a foul mood. After arriving in the UK, a mutual friend met Steve and his wife and they all went to one of Marriott’s favorite restaurants, where he consumed more alcohol. They returned to their friend’s house and decided to stay overnight since it was late, but once his wife fell asleep, Marriott took a taxi home alone.
At about 6:30 am on April 20, a passing motorist saw the roof of Marriott’s cottage ablaze and reported the fire. The most likely cause of the fire was that Marriott had lit a cigarette while in bed and almost immediately fallen into a deep sleep. He was found lying on the floor between the bed and wall and investigators concluded that he tried unsuccessfully to escape after being awakened by the blaze. Disoriented and confused after inhaling large amounts of thick smoke, Marriott had turned left instead of right towards the bedroom door and safety.
1992 – George Michael, David Bowie, Def Leppard, Robert Plant and Elton John were among the artists who performed at a posthumous tribute to Queen’s Freddie Mercury in London’s Wembley Stadium.
1993 – Aerosmith released their ‘Get A Grip’ album. It became Aerosmith’s best-selling studio album worldwide, achieving sales of over 20 million copies. Two songs from the album won Grammy Awards for Best Rock Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocal, in 1993 with ‘Livin’ On The Edge’, and in 1994 with ‘Crazy’.
2002 – Alan Dale (‘Sweet And Gentle’) died after a prolonged illness.
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Compiled by Ray Lemire ©2017 RayLemire.com. / Streamingoldies.com. All Rights Reserved.