Today In Rock & Roll History

The late Betty Everett (‘The Shoop Shoop Song {It’s In His Kiss’}) was born in 1939

The late Freddie Marsden (drummer with Gerry & The Pacemakers – ‘How Do You Do It’) was born in 1940

Bruce Hornsby (keyboards and lead vocals with Bruce Hornsby and The Range – ‘The Way It Is’) is 61

Sandra Stevens (Brotherhood Of Man – ‘United We Stand’) is 66

Alan Paul (Manhattan Transfer (‘The Boy From New York City’) is 66

The Palais Royal Hotel in San Francisco installed the first coin-operated machine destined to be known as a “jukebox,” in this case a crude slot-machine apparatus connected to an actual Edison phonograph. At a then-princely nickel a song, it nevertheless took in one thousand dollars in six months time—1899

Robert Johnson, sitting in room 414 of the Gunter Hotel in San Antonio, TX, made his first recordings—1936
Rock Factoid: The songs he recorded on that day were ‘Kind Hearted Woman Blues’, ‘I Believe I’ll Dust My Broom’ (later known as ‘Dust My Broom’), ‘Sweet Home Chicago’, ‘Ramblin’ On My Mind’, ‘When You Got A Good Friend’, ‘Come On In My Kitchen’Terraplane Blues’, and ‘Phonograph Blues’—1936
Rock Factoid #2: His landmark recordings in 1936 and 1937 displayed a combination of singing, guitar skills, and songwriting talent that has influenced later generations of musicians. Eric Clapton, who knows a thing or two about playing the blues, has said, “I consider Robert Johnson to be the most important blues musician who ever lived.”
Rock Factoid #3: By 1938, Johnson, the undisputed king of the Mississippi Delta blues, was dead at the age of 27.

A sheet metal worker in Toledo, OH was arrested for punching Elvis Presley in a bar after the man discovered Elvis’ picture in his wife’s wallet—1956

G.I. Blues, Elvis Presley’s first movie since returning from military service, premiered—1960

The Beatles auditioned at St. James’ Church Hall in London for BBC producers who to trying to assess their talent as a group and their potential for television. The audition was evidently not a success. Four days later, Brian Epstein received a letter from Ronald Lane, the BBC’s Light Entertainment Director, who informed Brian the producers were “not suitably impressed.”—1962

The Rolling Stones showed up late for the BBC radio shows, Top Gear and Saturday Club and were banned by the BBC—1964

The Beatles released ‘I Feel Fine’ / ‘She’s A Woman’ in the U.S.—1964
Rock Factoid: The distinctive opening note on ‘I Feel Fine’was the result of a low A note plucked by Paul McCartney on bass, while John Lennon’s guitar pickups were directed towards his amplifier.
“We were just about to walk away to listen to a take when John leaned his guitar against the amp. I can still see him doing it. John just leaned it against the amp when it went, ‘Nnnnnnwahhhhh!’ And we went, ‘What’s that? Voodoo!’ ‘No, it’s feedback.’ ‘Wow, it’s a great sound!’ George Martin was there so we said, ‘ Can we have that on the record?’ George replied, ‘Well, I suppose we could, we could edit it on the front.” … Paul McCartney
Rock Factoid #2: “I defy anybody to find a record – unless it’s some old blues record in 1922 – that uses feedback that way. I mean, everybody played with feedback on stage, and the Jimi Hendrix stuff was going on long before. In fact, the punk stuff now is only what people were doing in the clubs. So I claim it for The Beatles. Before Hendrix, before The Who, before anybody. The first feedback on any record.” … John Lennon

AM radio received a blow to its self-esteem when San Francisco KMPX-FM disc jockey Tom Donahue, inventor of “classic rock” and “deep cut” radio, told Rolling Stone that “Top Forty radio, as we know it today and have known it for the last ten years, is dead, and its rotting corpse is stinking up the airwaves.”—1967

After Dusty Springfield had recommended Jimmy Page to Ahmet Ertegun, head of Atlantic Records, Led Zeppelin manager Peter Grant finalized the deal that gave the group their recording contract—1968

George Harrison released ‘My Sweet Lord’ / ‘Isn’t It A Pity’ in the U.S.—1970
Rock Factoid: “I was so thrilled with Oh Happy Day by The Edwin Hawkins Singers. It really just knocked me out, the idea of that song and I just felt a great feeling of the Lord. So I thought, ‘I’ll write another ‘Oh Happy Day,’ which became ‘My Sweet Lord.'” … George Harrison
Rock Factoid #2: Hidden among the backing vocals towards the end of the song was the entire text of Vedic Sanskrit prayer.
“Gurur Brahmaa
Gurur Visnuh,
Gurur Devo
Mahesvarah
Gurur Sakshaat
Parambrahma
Tasmayi Shree
Gureve Namah”
The prayer translates as: “The teacher is Brahma, the teacher is Visnu, the teacher is the Lord Mahesvarah. Verily the teacher is the supreme Brahman, to that respected teacher I bow down.”
Rock Factoid #3: Harrison had offered ‘Isn’t It A Pity’ to the Beatles in 1966, only to have John Lennon reject it.
His lines, “How we take each other’s love/Without thinking anymore/Forgetting to give back” are evocative of Paul McCartney’s closing lines on The Beatles’ swansong Abbey Road: “And in the end the love you take/Is equal to the love you make” … and Harrison wrote his lines three years before McCartney.

Jerry Lee Lewis visited Elvis Presley’s Memphis home, Graceland, very early in the morning and was told that Elvis was asleep. He drove off in a huff but returned after sunrise. He allegedly brandished a gun and claimed he had come to kill Presley. Lewis, who later claimed he was making a sarcastic joke, was promptly arrested—1976

Dan Fogelberg released the ‘Longer’ single—1979

Roy Acuff (‘Wabash Cannonball’) died of congestive heart failure at the age of 89—1992

Tommy Boyce (Boyce & Hart – ‘I Wonder What She’s Doing Tonight’) died (self-inflicted gunshot wound) at the age of 55—1994
Rock Factoid: Boyce and Hart wrote ‘ (Theme From) The Monkees’, ‘Last Train To Clarksville’, ‘I’m Not Your Steppin’ Stone’ for the Monkees and ‘Come A Little Bit Closer’ for Jay & The Americans.

Junior Walker, born Autry DeWalt Mixon, Jr. (saxophone and vocals with Junior Walker & The All Stars – ‘Shotgun’) died (cancer) at the age of 64—1995
Rock Factoid: Walker played the blistering sax solo on Foreigner’s ‘Urgent’.

The world’s first portable mp3 player goes on sale, despite strenuous objections from the Recording Industry Association of America. The Diamond Rio PMP300, which cost $200, could play about a dozen songs—1998

Jonathan King (‘Everyone’s Gone To The Moon’) was arrested for having had sex with five boys under the age of 16 from 1983-1989. He would eventually be sentenced to seven years in prison—2000

O.C. Smith (‘Little Green Apples’) died (heart attack) at the age of 69—2001

Compiled by Ray Lemire ©2015 RayLemire.com. All Rights Reserved.