The late John Lennon was born in 1940
The late John Entwistle (bass guitar with The Who – ‘Happy Jack’) was born in 1944
Rock Factoid: As a songwriter, Entwistle went through many of the same struggles George Harrison did with The Beatles. Though he continued to contribute material to all of The Who’s albums, with the exception of ‘Quadrophenia’, he was frustrated by having to relinquish the position of vocalist to Roger Daltrey. As he said, “I got a couple of songs per album but my problem was that I wanted to sing the songs and not let Roger sing them.” This was a large part of the reason that he became the first member of the band to release a solo record, ‘Smash Your Head Against the Wall’ in 1971.
Rock Factoid #2: He was the only member of the band to have had formal musical training. In addition to bass guitar, he performed on the French horn (heard on ‘Pictures of Lily’, ‘Quadrophenia’ and ‘Overture’ from Tommy, among others).
Sean Lennon (singer/songwriter/guitarist with The Ghost of a Saber Tooth Tiger – ‘Moth To A Flame’ and ‘Dead Meat’ as a solo artist … and the son of John Lennon) is 39
Jackson Browne (‘Doctor My Eyes’) is 66
Pat Burke (tenor saxophone with The Foundations – ‘Baby, Now That I’ve Found You’) is 77
Eddie Cochran recorded ‘C’mon Everybody’—1958
The Beach Boys recorded ‘Dance Dance Dance’—1964
The Rolling Stones cancelled a planned tour in South Africa due to an anti-apartheid embargo by the British-Musicians-Union—1964
The Byrds recorded ‘Goin’ Back’—1967
The Beatles (Ringo Starr with hand claps and drum intro and Paul McCartney doing everything else) recorded ‘Why Don’t We Do It In The Road’—1968
Rock Factoid: “That’s Paul. He even recorded it by himself in another room. That’s how it was getting in those days. I can’t speak for George, but I was always hurt when Paul would knock something off without involving us. But that’s just the way it was then.” … John Lennon
Rock Factoid #2: “It wasn’t a deliberate thing. John and George were tied up finishing something and me and Ringo were free. Anyway, he did the same with ‘Revolution 9’. He went off and made that without me. No one ever says that. John is the nice guy and I’m the bastard. It gets repeated all the time.” … Paul McCartney
Rock Factoid #3: “‘The Ballad Of John And Yoko’ was recorded without George or me and it went out as a Beatle track, too. We had no problems with that.” … Ringo Starr
Rock Factoid #4: “It was a silly little song. So I wasn’t on it. Big deal. I didn’t care then and I still don’t.” … George Harrison
For the first time in the history of the show, the BBC’s ‘Top Of The Pops’ producers refused to air the #1 song—1969
Rock Factoid: ‘Je T’aime… Moi Non Plus’, was an erotic French language love song by Serge Gainsbourg and actress Jane Birkin. The song, an instrumental with the voices of Gainsbourg and Birkin supposedly recorded in the act of lovemaking and superimposed over the top, caused such a stir in Britain that the original label, Fontana, dropped the record despite it being #2 on the charts at the time.
Rock Factoid #2: A small record company, Major Minor, bought the rights and saw the song climb to the top, the first French language song to ever do so.
John Lennon finished recording his debut solo album (‘John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band’)—1970
Rock Factoid: Lennon played all the guitar parts on the album.
“I’m not as competent as George Harrison but I’m not a slouch. I’m not very good technically, but I can make it howl and move!” … John Lennon
Van Morrison released ‘Wild Night’—1971
Rolling Stones Records posthumously released Brian Jones’ Morocco recordings as ‘Brian Jones Presents the Pipes of Pan At Joujouka’. It was (and remains) brilliant—1971
Elvis Presley’s divorce from Priscilla became final—1973
Three Dog Night released the ‘Cyan’ album—1973
Rush made their American television debut on Don Kirshner’s Rock Concert—1974
Singer/Songwriter Jacques Brel (wrote ‘If You Go Away’, ‘Seasons In The Sun’ and ‘Amsterdam’) died (lung cancer)—1978
Styx released ‘Babe‘—1979
The Clash made their only appearance on American television, appearing on Saturday Night Live where they performed ‘Should I Stay or Should I Go?’—1982
Strawberry Fields, a 2.5 acre garden memorial in New York City’s Central Park, was dedicated to John Lennon—1985
Bruce Springsteen released the ‘Tunnel Of Love’ album—1987
Cliff Gallup (lead guitarist with Gene Vincent & The Blue Caps – ‘Be-Bop-A-Lula’) died (heart attack)—1988
Rock Factoid: At the time of his death, he was the Director of Maintenance and Transportation for the Chesapeake, Virginia city school system, where he worked for almost 30 years. At the request of his widow, obituaries in local newspapers made no mention of his time with Gene Vincent. In fact, most of the people within the school system had no idea he had ever played with Vincent. Once he walked away from the limelight, he kept it that way.
On the 50th anniversary of John Lennon’s birth, ‘Imagine’ was broadcast simultaneously by approximately 1,000 radio stations in over 100 countries. The broadcast originated from the United Nations building in New York City, and was introduced by Marcela Pérez de Cuéllar, the wife of UN secretary general Javier Pérez de Cuéllar—1990
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