Today In Rock & Roll History

ROCK & ROLL HISTORY

The late Paul Mauriat (‘Love Is Blue’) was born in 1925.

The late Bobby Womack (‘Looking For A Love’) was born in 1944.

The late Eric Allendale (trombonist with The Foundations – ‘Build Me Up Buttercup’) was born in 1936

The late Peter Haycock (lead guitarist with The Climax Blues Band – ‘Couldn’t Get It Right’) was born in 1951

Jason Newsted (former bass guitarist with Metallica from 1986-2001 – ‘Enter Sandman’) is 52.

Chris Rea (‘Fool If You Think It’s Over’) is 64.

Chris Squire (bass guitar with Yes – ‘Roundabout’) is 67.
Rock Factoid: He is the only original member still in the band, as well as the only member in Yes history to appear on every album.

Shakin’ Stevens (born Michael Barratt – ‘Oh Julie’) is 67.

Michael ‘Mick’ Wilson (drummer with Dave Dee, Dozy, Beaky, Mick & Tich – ‘The Legend Of Xanadu’) is 71.
Rock Factoid: The group was scarcely known in America but it was different story in England. Between 1965 and 1969, they spent more weeks in the UK Singles Chart than The Beatles.

1957 – Marty Robbins released ‘A White Sport Coat (And A Pink Carnation)’ / ‘Grown Up Tears’.
Rock Factoid: Robbins said he wrote the A-side in about 20 minutes while sitting in the back of a car taking him to a venue in Ohio where he was due to perform. During the course of the journey, he passed a high school, where the students were dressed for a prom.

1966 – The Beatles released the ‘Yesterday’ EP (in mono only) in England.
Rock Factoid: Each member of the group had a lead vocal: ‘Yesterday’ (Paul), ‘Act Naturally’ (Ringo), ‘You Like Me Too Much’ (George) and ‘It’s Only Love’ (John)

1966 – John Lennon’s “We’re more popular than Jesus” remark was published in Britain.
Rock Factoid: The comment was in an article (How Does A Beatle Live?) published in the London Evening Standard. A fascinating portrait of John Lennon’s home life, it was written by Maureen Cleave, a close friend to The Beatles. The piece grew notorious in later months when Lennon’s comments about Christianity – “We’re more popular than Jesus now; I don’t know which will go first – rock ‘n’ roll or Christianity” – were republished around the world.

1967 – Steve and Muff Winwood left The Spencer Davis Group.
Rock Factoid: After leaving the group, Muff Winwood moved to a position as A&R man at Island Records. He later produced Dire Straits debut single (‘Sultans Of Swing’) and album (‘Dire Straits’). Steve, of course, went on to form Traffic and Blind Faith, and had a very successful solo career.

1970 – Janis Joplin went to court (and won).
Rock Factoid: Joplin had been arrested in Tampa, Florida, after a November 1969 concert for disorderly conduct that involved reportedly bad-mouthing a policeman. The charges were dropped on this date in 1970 because a court ruled that bad-mouthing a policeman in Tampa, Florida could be called a justifiable exercise of free speech.

1970 – Bob Dylan recorded ‘Early Morning Rain’ and ‘Days Of ’49’.
Rock Factoid: Both songs were part of Dylan’s ‘Self Portrait’ album, which, when released in June 1970, received extremely poor reviews. For example, Greil Marcus’ opening sentence in his Rolling Stone magazine was “What is this shit?”
Rock Factoid #2: Dylan has claimed in interviews that ‘Self Portrait’ was something of a joke, far below the standards he set in the 1960s, and was made to get people off his back and end the “spokesman of a generation” tags. However, the album quickly went gold in the U.S., where it hit #4 on the Billboard Album chart.

1973 – Elvis Presley released a live version of ‘Steamroller Blues’ as a single.
Rock Factoid: It did reasonably well, reaching #17 on the U.S. Pop Singles Chart. It was still being performed on Presley concert tours up until his 1977 death

1976 – Hall & Oates recorded ‘Rich Girl’.
Rock Factoid: Despite the title, it wasn’t about a woman at all, but an ex-boyfriend of Hall’s girlfriend, Sara Allen. The ex was “an heir to a fast food chain,” Hall said, “His father’s gonna bail him out of any problems he gets in. But you can’t write, ‘You’re a rich boy’ in a song, so I changed it to a girl.”

1979 – Mike Patto (keyboards/vocals with Spooky Tooth – ‘Hell Or High Water’) died of cancer at the age of 36.

1983 – During a concert at the Convention Center in Louisville, KY, Neil Young collapsed onstage due to exhaustion.

1986 – Howard Greenfield (songwriter) died at 49 of heart failure due to complications from AIDS.
Rock Factoid: Greenfield was openly gay, even though during the era in which he lived it was unusual to be open about it. His companion from the early 1960s to his death was cabaret singer Tory Damon, who also died from AIDS complications just 26 days later.
Rock Factoid #2: Greenfield wrote the lyrics for many of Neil Sedaka’s hits (including ‘Oh! Carol,’ ‘Happy Birthday, Sweet Sixteen,’ ‘Calendar Girl,’ ‘King Of Clowns,’ ‘Diary,’ ‘Next Door To An Angel’ and ‘Breaking Up Is Hard To Do’)
He also penned the lyrics to ‘Where The Boys Are,’ ‘Everybody’s Somebody’s Fool,’ ‘My Heart Has A Mind Of Its Own’ and ‘Stupid Cupid’ for Connie Francis, and ‘Love Will Keep Us Together’ by the Captain & Tennille.
Rock Factoid #3: In total, 429 songs written by Greenfield earned him a spot in the Songwriters Hall of Fame.

1986 –Richard Manuel (pianist with the Band – ‘Tears Of Rage’) committed suicide at the age of 42.
Rock Factoid: The Band – which no longer included guitarist Robbie Robertson – had just played the Cheek To Cheek Lounge in Winter Park, Florida – clearly a long fall down from The Band’s peak. After the gig he forecast his intentions by thanking bandmate Garth Hudson for “25 years of incredible music” but Hudson failed to catch the sign. Manuel spent the remainder of his waking hours in drummer Levon Helm’s hotel room, eventually making his way back to his room around 2:30 a.m.
Rock Factoid #2: According to the autopsy report – which showed that Manuel, a notorious drinker, was legally drunk the night he died and that he had taken cocaine within the previous 12 to 24 hours – he went into his bathroom and, sometime between 2:30 and 3:30 a.m., hung himself.

1989 – With ‘Lost in Your Eyes’ reaching the top of the Billboard singles chart, Debbie Gibson became the first teenager to write, produce and perform a U.S. #1 song.

1992 – Legendary jazz guitarist Mary Osborne (played with Dizzy Gillespie, Mercer Ellington, Coleman Hawkins, Thelonious Monk, Art Tatum, and many more) died of liver cancer at the age of 70.

1994 – Nirvana’s Kurt Cobain was rushed to a hospital in Rome after overdosing on champagne and 50 pills of Rohypnol in his hotel room.

1996 – Ringo Starr, Paul McCartney and George Harrison turned down a $225 million offer to tour.
Rock Factoid: The offer came from a consortium of German and American businessmen who wanted to back a Beatles “reunion” tour of 22 cities in North America, Europe and Japan.
Rock Factoid #2: “The size of the offer is scandalous, it’s ridiculous. From the money point of view, most people would do it. But to me, the three of us isn’t as exciting as the four of us. The Beatles were always the four of us. Of course people will say that we could get someone else to fill John’s place, but it just wouldn’t be the same.” … Paul McCartney
Rock Factoid #3: But wait, it got even more ridiculous! Promoter Sid Bernstein, the man who booked the Beatles’ Shea Stadium concerts in 1965 and 1966, upped the ante a few weeks later when he offered $500 million for one concert!
Bernstein said he would suggest giving concertgoers seeds to plant trees for peace, and he claimed the concert could generate a billion-dollar trust fund for charity through international television rights, a film and recording of the event, merchandise and ticket sales.
“The message would be heard around the world,” he said. “With all due respect, no three world leaders could get the kind of reaction as these guys.”
Rock Factoid #4: McCartney was brief and to the point with his response. “The Beatles aren’t interested. Money is not an issue.”

1996 – The Beatles released ‘Real Love’ / ‘Baby’s In Black (Live)’.
Rock Factoid: The A-Side featured a previously recorded John Lennon demo, augmented by new music from the remaining Beatles. The B-Side was a live version from one of their Hollywood Bowl shows in 1965.
Rock Factoid #2: The single quickly jumped into the British charts at #4. However, its progress in the charts was stunted by BBC Radio 1’s exclusion of ‘Real Love’ from its playlist. Reuters, which described Radio 1 as “the biggest pop music station in Britain,” reported that the station declared, “It’s not what our listeners want to hear … We are a contemporary music station.”
Rock Factoid #3: Paul McCartney wrote an 800-word article for The Daily Mirror about the ban, where he stated, “The Beatles don’t need our new single, ‘Real Love’, to be a hit. It’s not as if our careers depend on it. If Radio 1 feels that we should be banned now, it’s not exactly going to ruin us overnight. You can’t put an age limit on good music. It’s very heartening to know that, while the kindergarten kings of Radio 1 may think the Beatles are too old to come out to play, a lot of younger British bands don’t seem to share that view.”

1996 – Minnie Pearl (comedienne and singer – ‘Giddyup Go – Answer’) died at the age of 83 due to complications from a series of strokes.

1997 – Raymond Edwards (bass vocals with The Silhouettes – ‘Get A Job’) died of natural causes at the age of 75.

1999 – Eddie Dean (actor in cowboy westerns and singer – ‘I Dreamed Of A Hillbilly Heaven’) died of emphysema at the age of 89.

2001 – Glenn Hughes, the “biker character” in The Village People (‘Macho Man’) died of lung cancer at the age of 50. He was buried in his leather outfit.

2002 – Mark Vann (electric banjo/songwriter/vocalist with Leftover Salmon – ‘Funky Mountain Fogdown’) died of melanoma at the age of 39.

2010 – Ron Banks (The Dramatics – ‘Whatcha See Is Whatcha Get’) died of a heart attack at the age of 58.

2010 – Candito ‘Lolly Vegas’ Vasquez (guitarist with Redbone – ‘Come And Get Your Love’) died of cancer at the age of 70.

2011 – Johnny Preston (‘Running Bear’) died of heart failure at the age of 71.
Rock Factoid: The “Indian” sounds on Preston’s hit record were performed by J.P. (Big Bopper) Richardson –who wrote the song – and country music legend George Jones.

2013 – Fran Warren (‘A Sunday Kind of Love’) died of natural causes on her 87th birthday.

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